


All These Years

by WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: AU, But morphs into domesticity fluff in chapter two, F/F, Fluff, Starts of a little angsty, They are just really happy, They're married and have a kid, now with happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-13 05:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 41,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5696560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks/pseuds/WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would you do if the lover you thought dead shows up at your office after 5 years?</p><p>Or: "Muse A runs into Muse B after thinking they had died 5 years prior."</p><p>A Roisa AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this prompt was given to me way too long ago, but I finally figured out how I wanted it to go, so here we are!
> 
> Enjoy!

‘Yes, and if you can just reschedule that appointment for next week,’ Luisa said to her assistant as she rounded the corner, pointing something out on her schedule.

‘Of course, Dr. Alver,’ the woman said. ‘Oh, and there is someone waiting for you in your office.’

‘Really, who?’ Luisa said, checking her watch, she was certain she didn’t have any more appointments for the day.

‘I don’t know, I’ve never seen her here before, she didn’t leave a name, just said it was important,' her assistant shrugged.

‘Well, thank you. You can go home, Kara. I’ll finish up with this mystery woman and lock up.’

Kara nodded and went back to her desk, leaving Luisa wondering what the woman in her office could possibly want this late. Maybe she’d come to her clinic by referral? But those people usually called to set up an appointment, they didn’t just show up unannounced at closing time.

As she walked through her office door, the mystery woman was standing with her back to her, holding what seemed to be one of the pictures on her desk.

‘Hi, can I help you?’ Luisa said, slightly annoyed that a stranger was picking up her personal photos. Although, there was something vaguely familiar about her, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

The woman put the picture down carefully, making sure it returned to the exact spot she’d taken it from, before she turned around slowly.

‘Hey, Lu,’ the woman said. As soon as the first word passed her lips, Luisa felt shivers run up her spine and her mouth fell open; she knew that voice. But it should also be impossible to hear that voice. Absolutely impossible. She could feel her hands start to shake and her mouth go dry. As soon as the woman’s blue eyes met her own, she gasped. She remembered the last time she’d seen those beautiful blue eyes nearly five years ago. How could she possibly forget them? She saw them every night in her dreams and they were the first thing on her mind when she woke up, before the reality of the world set in and she realized she would never be able to look in them again. But here they were, bright, blue and very much _alive_. She felt the folders she’d been holding slipping through her fingers and her knees buckle.

‘ _Rose_?’ Luisa gasped, her eyes wide and quickly filling with tears. This was impossible, it had to be a dream. A terribly realistic dream. She couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her; the woman in front of her couldn’t possibly be here. She was _dead_ , she’d died five years ago. She couldn’t be here in her office, the same office were she’d gotten the horrible phone call five years earlier.  

_Luisa groaned as her phone rang, it was two to five, Rose would be here soon, and she really wanted to go home with her wife and not be stuck in her office any longer, trying to talk sense into some overly worried pregnant woman, that could take hours. And while Rose said she didn’t mind waiting for Luisa, that she loved watching her work, Luisa knew she’d rather be home._

_She picked up her office phone. ‘This is Dr. Alver,' she said, trying to keep from sounding as bored and annoyed as she felt._  

_‘Dr. Alver, hello, I am officer Cordero. You are listed as Rose Alver’s emergency contact. Is that correct?’_

_Luisa could feel fear start to squeeze her heart in her chest. ‘Yes, that’s correct,’ she said, her heart hammering in her chest. There was only one reason for a police officer to be calling her: Rose had been in an accident, and a bad one if it was a policeman calling her. ‘Is she okay? Is everything alright?’ she said, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the edge of her desk tightly._

_‘Dr. Alver, I am very sorry to inform you, but Mrs. Alver was involved in an accident. The EMT’s were on the scene in a few minutes, but there was nothing that could be done for her. She didn’t make it, I’m very sorry for your loss,’ he said, sounding sincere. But Luisa didn’t hear him, the only thing coursing through her head was that Rose, her Rose, her wife, was dead._

_She sat there in silence, the police officer continuing to talk to her over the phone, but she was too stunned to respond, tears made their way down her cheeks, her breathing had become shallow and rushed, she could feel herself starting to become lightheaded and knew that if she didn’t get her breathing under control soon, she’d faint. She dropped the phone and placed her hands over her stomach, forcing herself to take deeper breaths. Eventually her breathing calmed down a bit and she was no longer at risk of passing out, but her hands lingered on her stomach, she looked down and through her tears she could just make out the slight swell of her four-month baby bump._

‘Rose?’ Luisa said again, taking a staggering step backwards until her back hit the closed door. ‘You – you’re alive!’ Luisa said. ‘How – how are you alive? How are you here? You – you died. This can’t be happening. This is a dream,’ Luisa stammered, her vision slightly blurry through her tears.

‘Luisa, I’m really here. I’m not dead,’ Rose said, a gentle smile on her face as she stepped closer, softly putting her hand on Luisa’s elbow. The touch was like Luisa had been tased, all her nerve endings came alive and now her legs really did give out, luckily Rose caught her before she hit the ground.

‘Careful,’ Rose said as she led Luisa to the couch next to them, sitting them both down.

Luisa, still not quite believing this was actually Rose, that she had somehow come back from the dead, reached out to stroke Rose’s cheek. But the electricity of the touch, the familiarity of it, it had to be real. It had to be Rose.

‘How?’ Luisa stuttered, blinking furiously to get rid of her tears.

‘That’s a long story,’ Rose said, reaching up to wipe at Luisa’s cheeks, her eyes sad and a little ashamed. ‘And let me start with I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. For everything. For all the hurt I caused you. For all the lies. For all these years I wasn’t there, for, for everything I am about to tell you.’

‘How are you not dead?’ Luisa said, tracing the veins on the back of Rose’s hand, encountering the white scar where Rose had managed to cut herself on a nail while they were painting their house.

‘I – I had to fake my death,’ Rose said, looking at her hands, her jaw doing that thing Luisa loved, because it was so purely _Rose_.

‘What? Why?’ Luisa said. ‘Why would you do something like that?’ she said, one thousand questions and emotions swirling through her head, each as confusing as the last.

‘Because,’ Rose started, lifting her gaze up to meet Luisa’s. ‘Because I am not the person you thought I was.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m a criminal, Luisa. When we met, I was the boss of a major criminal empire. I was known by the name of Sin Rostro. I trafficked drugs. Lots of it. From the shadows, no one knew who I really was. It was what I was good at, what I loved to do, what I was certain I’d do forever. But then I met you, and after one minute together I knew that I would rather have you than my empire. So I stopped, I quit, I left everything behind me without a second glance. But the thing is, criminals don’t play by the rules and my disappearance cost them a lot of money. So they came after me. And I knew that if they found me, they’d stop at nothing to get back at me. They’d hurt you to get to me. They’d hurt our child,’ Rose said, looking at the back of a picture on Luisa’s desk, they one she’d been holding earlier. The one of a smiling four-year-old with unruly red curls and big brown eyes. ‘And I couldn’t let that happen. So I needed to disappear. Until I was certain they wouldn’t come after me.’

Luisa had listened to Rose’s words in stunned silence, she couldn’t process. It didn’t make any sense. The fact that Rose was a faceless drug lord called Sin Rostro was too absurd to get into right now, all of this was. She had no idea what to do or say. What did you say to your no-longer dead wife who just confessed she’s a long time criminal?

In the corner of her mind, past all the conflicting emotions, she found one emotion working its way to the foreground: anger. Rose had lied to her, the whole time they’d known each other. She’d _faked her death_ , for _five_ years. She had abandoned her, and their child. A child who Luisa had told all about how amazing her other mother was, the one she’d never get to meet.

‘You _lied_ to me, about everything. You _married_ me while I didn’t even knew who you were! You had a _child_ with me! How could you?’ Luisa said, pulling her hands away from Rose’s.

‘I am so sorry Luisa. I was so blinded by you. You were never supposed to be more than just a one night stand, a fling. But I fell for you, and you didn’t deserve Sin Rostro, you deserved someone who could actually love you back. So I left that part of me behind, and I didn’t tell you about it, because, because I was selfish. I was afraid you would never continue to love me after you found out. So I kept lying and hiding it from you. And I felt so guilty, but you seemed so happy and I didn’t want to ruin that. I am so sorry.’

‘I would have still loved you!’ Luisa yelled, hot tears spilling out of her eyes. ‘You should have told me!’

‘I realized that the first day I was away from you. I missed you so much. But I couldn’t go to you, say that the hospital had made a mistake. It would put you in danger, it would put our daughter in danger. So I turned around and never looked back, but I never stopped missing you.’

‘You missed me?! You missed me?!’ Luisa yelled. ‘I buried you! I thought you were dead! For five year you made me believe you were dead! Crime lord or not, you could have told me you were alive! I mourned you, Rose. For months I was too depressed to do anything. And then when Mia was born...’

‘Mia…’ Rose interrupted, repeating the name almost reverently. ‘After your mother.’

Luisa looked at her, the soft look in Rose’s eyes nearly choking her. She hadn’t known the name of their daughter, the first time she saw her was probably when she picked up the framed photo on her desk. ‘She looked so much like you,’ Luisa said, her anger wavering a bit as she thought of her daughter. ‘And I was a terrible mother those first few months. I couldn’t look at her without thinking of you, without crying. Because you’d never get to know this beautiful girl we’d made together, and she’d never get to know her amazing mother. But then I changed, I realized I had to be strong for her, so I could tell her about you. Which I guess were all lies…’ she said, her anger returning.

‘Why are you back now?’ Luisa said, getting up and moving to stand behind her desk, putting some distance between her and Rose.

‘Because all my debts are paid. I am no longer a danger to you or anyone. I am well and truly dead in the underworld.’

‘That doesn’t explain why you came back _here,_ ’ Luisa said, although she knew the answer already.

‘Because I still love you. And I couldn’t live with myself if I stayed away from one second longer than I had to.’

‘Then you should have never left in the first place,’ Luisa said. ‘You let me believe you were dead, Rose. You’ve been dead longer than I’ve known you, which as it turns out was all lies to begin with. So I can’t be in the same room as you. I need time to think. To understand what the hell is happening right now. And I need to leave now because I need to get home to my daughter.’

‘I understand. Please, take this,’ Rose said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a card. ‘This is my number. If you’ve any questions, give me a call. I won’t contact you again until you want me to, I know this is a lot to take in and that you don’t owe me anything. But know that I love you very much,’ she said as she put the card in Luisa’s palm, folding her fingers over it as Luisa was too stunned to do anything. ‘I hope you call,’ Rose whispered as she leaned in and pressed her lips softly to Luisa’s cheek, catching just a bit of the corner of her mouth.

Luisa didn’t move until Rose had closed the door behind her, then she fell down in her chair, resting her head in her hands. She had dreamt so many times of Rose coming back from the death, especially those first few months when it had been easier to deny what had happened. And now that fantasy had become reality, but it was nothing like she had dreamt it would be. It was all horribly confusing and conflicting and she had no idea what to do.

She sighed, what she needed was a strong drink, which she could not have as she had made a promise to the tiny newborn in her arms that she’d never touch alcohol again. She couldn’t be the mother Mia needed if she started drinking again. Oh god, Mia. How was she supposed to tell her daughter Rose was still alive? Should she even tell her? Rose had admitted herself that she was a dangerous criminal. How could she expose her child to that? No, she wouldn’t tell her daughter, at least not until she’d sorted her own thoughts out.

She stared at the card in her hand, it had a hotel name and room number on it, a phone number written on the back in Rose’s elegant hand. She wished she could just crumple it and throw it away. If Rose kept her word, which Luisa was somehow certain she would, they would never see each other again. And no matter how angry and confused she was right now, she was certain she’d come to regret that decision. Because Rose was alive, and if her behavior over the last five years was an indicator, she was still not over her.

Next to the most recent picture of Mia, was their wedding picture. She picked it up, smiling sadly as more tears leaked from her eyes. It had been one of the best days of her life, rivaled only by the day they’d found out she was pregnant and Mia’s birth. But that last one had been full of conflicting feeling as well, but no matter how messed up her emotions were that day. Mia had become the most important thing in her life, her whole desk was covered in pictures of her daughter. And some of Rose.

Rafael had repeatedly told her to get rid of them, to move on, but she couldn’t, Rose was the only person she ever really loved, and she couldn’t just move on from that. She sighed, gathering her stuff and walking out of her office, the card burning a hole in her pocket.

* * *

As soon as she walked through the door of her home, she was assaulted by a pair of tiny arms wrapping themselves around her legs.

‘Mommy! You’re late!’ Mia said, looking up smiling widely at the only mother she’d ever known.

‘Hey, sweetheart,’ Luisa said, bending down to give her daughter a proper hug. ‘Sorry, I’m late, something came up at work.’

‘That’s okay. You were helping babies!’ Mia smiled. ‘Look!’ she continued, putting her fingers in the corners of her mouth, showing off her teeth while she smiled widely.

Luisa gasped in exaggerated surprise as she noticed her daughter’s missing tooth. ‘What happened? Where did it go?’ she asked, faking shock.

‘It just fell out mommy!’ Mia said proudly.

‘Wow! You’re getting so big! Your grown-up teeth are already coming! Did you save your tooth for the tooth fairy?’ Luisa asked, it was so easy to get completely absorbed into her daughter, but today she couldn’t push Rose from her mind. It was incredible how much Mia looked like Rose. Luisa might have carried her, but they had used Rose’s DNA and a donor who looked like Luisa, assuring the child would really be _theirs_. And apparently Rose had some crazy dominant genes, with exception of the eyes, Mia had brown eyes like Luisa, she was basically a miniature Rose. The hair, the skin, the jaw, everything reminded her of Rose.

‘Of course, mommy!’ Mia smiled, dragging Luisa towards the kitchen where Amy, her nanny, was gathering her stuff.

‘Hello, Amy,’ Luisa greeted, putting her stuff down on the kitchen counter. ‘How was she today?

‘Great, as always,’ Amy smiled. ‘She was very happy her loose tooth finally came out.’

Mia nodded happily. ‘Because now the tooth fairy is going to visit and I get to have ice cream as dessert.’ Mia positively beamed.

‘And why is that?’ Luisa laughed, playing oblivious.

‘Because my mouth hurts and ice cream helps,’ Mia said smugly, or as smug as four-year-olds can get.

‘Really? I didn’t know that,' Luisa said, tapping her chin as she pondered her daughter’s statement.

‘I can show you!’ Mia said, skillfully having turned this around on her mother as she made her way to the freezer.

‘Oh no, young lady. You can have ice cream after dinner. Not before.’

‘But you didn’t believe me!’ Mia pouted.

‘Ice cream after dinner,’ Luisa repeated sternly, she was not going to let her four-year-old walk all over her. Not this time anyway. ‘You can help me cook, it will go faster that way.’

Mia seemed to way the options in her head, turning to Amy, who was still there, watching the mother-daughter exchange with interest. ‘What do you think I should do?’ Mia asked, a serious expression on her face.

‘Well, I think you should definitely help your mother, she might let you have extra ice cream if you do,’ Amy whispered, loud enough for Luisa to hear.

‘Okay, I’ll help. But no vegetables!’

‘Okay, no ice cream then,’ Luisa said, hiding her smile by turning around.

‘Mom-my,’ Mia whined, stomping her little foot on the ground. ‘One vegetable,’ she said softly.

‘One vegetable,’ Luisa agreed. ‘But you have to eat all of it.’

‘Okay,’ Mia said, not looking very happy about it, but her ice cream was at stake.

After saying goodbye to Amy for the day, Luisa compensating her for her overtime. And after cooking pasta with Mia, the role of the evil vegetable played by a bell pepper, it was time for dessert. In which Luisa decided to indulge as well, if she couldn’t have alcohol, chocolate ice cream was the next best thing.

As she’d come home late, it was soon time to get Mia into bed. She read her a bed time story and together they put the tooth underneath her pillow.

‘Sweet dreams, sweetheart. I love you,’ Luisa smiled, pressing a kiss to her daughter’s forehead.

‘I love you too, mommy,’ a sleepy Mia answered.

* * *

Luisa’s smile faltered as she closed the door. Her daughter had been a helpful distraction from Rose, but now she was all alone with her thoughts again. She made her way to her bedroom, falling down on the middle of the bed that was much too big for her alone.

She rolled over to “her” side of the bed, picking her wedding ring of the nightstand, twisting the thin, platinum band around in her fingers. She had taken it off a year after Rose had died, and only because Rafael told her she would never get over her otherwise, but she didn’t have the heart to stow it in a jewelry box somewhere, so it usually just sat on her nightstand. And she had to admit Rafael had been right, it was easier to not think of what she lost when she wasn’t constantly reminded of it.

Slowly the background of her phone had changed from a picture of her and Rose to a picture of Mia, she'd boxed all of Rose’s stuff, only kept a couple of photographs on display. Their wedding photo amongst them. Looking at the pictures still made her feel a little sad, she kept missing Rose, thinking about everything they lost during that stupid accident only a couple blocks from her office. But after a while she started to smile more as she looked at pictures of Rose, she remembered all the things they had together, not everything they had missed out on. And now it turned out that everything they had was a lie. A lie she would have happily believed for the rest of her life. But now, now she had to choose, live with the knowledge that Rose was out there, alive, and that she had abandoned her and their daughter. Or try to make sense of it and give Rose another chance. Rose had left them to protect them, a completely ridiculous and misguided move, but still. Rose hadn’t just left her, and she’d come _back._

Luisa sighed. It would be easier and less painful to just forget all of this ever happened. But she still remembered how alive she’d felt when Rose touched her. How happy she felt in that split second of ignorance. And she knew that she couldn’t live with the knowledge that Rose was out there, but not with her. It might take some time, but the choice had already been made when she slipped the card into her pocket. She wanted to try with Rose, crime-lord or not, five missing years or not, she still loved her. And she slipped the wedding ring back onto her ring finger and fished the card out of her pocket.

‘Hi,’ she breathed.

‘Hi,’ Rose said back from the other side of the line, Luisa could hear the relief in that single word alone.

‘I can’t just let you go now I know you’re alive. I don’t know if I can ever forgive you, so baby steps for now, okay? Can you meet me tomorrow for lunch at a restaurant? Neutral ground. I have questions, and I need to look into your eyes while I ask them.’

‘Of course, whatever you want,’ Rose said. ‘I promise I will be nothing but honest.’

‘Good, because one more lie and we’re done. I can’t let you into Mia’s life if you’re going to abandon us again, or if you are still a criminal. And I am not saying you get to meet her yet. Probably not soon either. I need to figure out how to break this to her, hell, I am still trying to wrap my head around it myself. So let’s just start with lunch okay?’ she rambled.

‘Luisa, I’ll gladly take whatever you offer. I upended your life not once, but twice. You have to think of your daughter.’

Luisa noticed the use of ‘your’ and not ‘our’ and she realized she didn’t really like it.

‘Lunch, tomorrow. You better show up.’

‘I will, believe me, I will.’

‘Good night,’ Luisa said.

‘Good night. I love you,’ Rose said.

Luisa closed her eyes and ended the call, she couldn’t say that yet, it would take time to get over the betrayal and hurt.

* * *

It took time, lots of it, and even more talking, but slowly, Luisa began to trust Rose again. It became apparent that the other woman had only acted out of what she thought was in Luisa’s best interest. Rose realized that her actions had been wrong and hurtful. And Luisa realized the love she had for Rose that had never truly left, and it quickly returned to the surface, as strong as ever. So 8 months later, the big day was finally there, and Luisa couldn’t tell who was more nervous, she, Rose or Mia.

She had broken the news to Mia a couple of weeks before, she and Rose had decided on a version on the truth that was not too much of a lie. The half-truth they had devised was that Rose had been in wit-sec. Which was something even her brother had believed when she broke the news to him. And in a way it was true, but it was still a lie. So she told Mia her mother had gone away for a while to protect them, not wanting to scare the little girl by telling her exactly what they’d needed protecting of.

They were doing the first meeting in their home, where Rose had been a couple of times already but never with Mia there as well.

* * *

Luisa was sitting on the couch, facing the window as she bounced a nervous Mia up and down in her lap.

‘What if she doesn’t like me?’ Mia said, chewing on her bottom lip. And Luisa couldn’t help but laugh a little, Rose had said exactly the same thing the day before, when Luisa announced she and Mia were finally ready to meet Rose.

‘She already loves you and she can’t wait to meet you,’ she said, kissing her daughter lovingly on the cheek as she stared out of the window. If Rose wasn’t going to show up, she was going to find that woman herself and kill her for upsetting her daughter. Ex-crime-lord or not. Rose would be done for.

Luckily, just at that moment Rose her car pulled into their driveway. Mia, who’d heard the car pull up, suddenly went very quiet, burying her face in Luisa’s blouse.

‘It’s okay. You don’t have to meet her if you don’t want to. It’s completely up to you. Rose will understand.’

Mia whimpered, looking up at her mother with big brown eyes.

‘Do you want me to take you to your bedroom while I talk to Rose?’

Mia nodded.

‘Okay, let’s do that. You can meet her another time then, there’s no hurry,’ Luisa said as she lifted the child up on her hip and carried her upstairs to her room. She handed Mia her stuffed sheep before she went downstairs to explain the situation to Rose.

* * *

‘She doesn’t want to meet me, does she?’ Rose said, her bottom lip pulled between her teeth as she fidgeted with her ring.

‘She’s a little shy, and nervous. I have been telling her about you for years, and suddenly learning you are not dead is quite a shock, I speak from experience,' Luisa smiled, she’d been surprised how quick she’d gotten over the whole ‘pretending to be dead for five years’ thing. But then again, this was Rose, and normal standards didn’t seem to apply to the two of them. They had, what was by all means intended as a one night stand, on the Fourth of July, only to run into each other the following afternoon while having lunch at the same restaurant. And they started dating, within a year they were married and within another they were expecting a child. So Luisa shouldn’t really be surprised by how quickly they had gotten back together.

She put her hands on Rose’s shoulders and stood on her toes to capture Rose’s lips with her own. ‘She’ll be ready someday. Until then, let’s just take it slow. Come in for a cup of coffee. I’d hate for you to drive all the way here for nothing.’

‘Are you sure? It’s really no trouble. And I don’t want to upset Mia any further,’ Rose said, her hands coming to cover Luisa’s.

‘I am sure, Mia is a very stubborn child but also very curious. If you stay, she might come downstairs to check you out.’

‘She got that from you.’

‘Oh no, the stubbornness is definitely you,’ Luisa smirked.

‘I meant the curiosity,’ Rose smiled, her eyes shining with amusement.

‘Sure you did,’ Luisa said, pulling Rose inside with her.

‘I’m glad she has your eyes,’ Rose said as she gently traced a picture of a one-year-old Mia, looking directly into the camera. ‘I always loved your eyes.’

‘I like that too. It’s a little less like having a mini carbon copy of you running around in onesies,’ Luisa smiled, looking over Rose’s shoulder as she leafed through the photo album.

‘My hair was never this curly,’ Rose said, pointing at a picture where Mia’s fiery red hair was whipped around her by the wind on the beach.

‘Liar, you just style it very carefully. I remember when the air-conditioning broke and you looked like that for a week. I think I actually have pictures of that somewhere…’ Luisa grinned.

‘Don’t you dare,’ Rose warned, turning her head to brush her lips over Luisa’s. ‘You better burn those pictures.’

‘But you’re so cute in them,’ Luisa smiled, wrapping her arms around Rose’s shoulders, hugging her from behind. The whole thing was so familiar and nice it was like Rose hadn’t been gone for five years at all. There was only one thing missing.

‘I think we’re being watched,’ Luisa whispered into Rose’s ear as she spotted her daughter’s brown eyes peeking at them from the doorway, halfway hidden behind the door.

She unwrapped her arms from Rose’s shoulders and made her way over to the door, kneeling in front of her daughter. ‘Hi sweetheart, we’re just looking at pictures of you, do you want to join us?’ Luisa asked, taking her daughter’s hand in her own.

Mia nodded curtly, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck, silently asking to be carried, something she very rarely did.

‘Come here,’ Luisa said, picking her daughter up and carrying her towards the table, she had felt Rose’s eyes on her the whole time, and as she sat down with Mia in her lap, she smiled at Rose. Wordlessly telling her everything was going great.

Rose smiled back but stayed silent. Luisa now had to deal with the both of them not saying anything, and she had never done great with silences. So she filled the quiet around her with random background stories about the pictures in the book, which Mia all knew by heart but was always interested in hearing again, but which were mostly new to Rose who also listened attentively.

After a while, Mia started to relax, turning the pages and making small noises of acknowledgement when she encountered a picture she liked.

Luisa was slowly getting annoyed by her daughter and not quite ex-wife (she really hadn’t figured out how binding their marriage was in all these ridiculous circumstances, gay marriage becoming legal in Florida amongst them) not talking to each other. So she decided to take matters into her own hands as they neared the end of the photo book.

‘Let me get part two,’ Luisa smirked, moving out from underneath Mia, fully intending to leave both of them alone. Getting matching stares of fear form the redheads at her dinner table. ‘I’ll be back in a flash.’

She idled a little outside the door, hoping to find Rose and Mia talking once she walked back in.

‘Your hair is like mine,’ Mia said as she reached up to touch Rose’s hair. ‘I never met anyone with hair like mine.’

‘Florida and redheads don’t really go together,’ Rose smiled. ‘Too much sun, we get all freckly,’ she said, pointing at the freckles on the back of her hand and arms.

‘I have those too!’ Mia said, putting her own arm next to Rose’s for comparison. ‘What happened?’ she said, as she noticed the raised scar on Rose’s hand, tracing it gingerly.

‘I was painting that wall over there,’ Rose pointed to one of the side walls of the kitchen. ‘When I fell of the stepladder and scratched my hand on a nail.’

‘Did it hurt?’ Mia said, looking up at Rose in awe.

‘A little, but your mother kissed it better.’

‘She’s really good at that, because she is a doctor,’ Mia said seriously. ‘I once fell down the stairs and hit my head, and she gave me candy and kissed the bump on my head and then it didn’t hurt anymore!’ Mia said happily.

‘She must be a really good doctor then.’

‘She’s the best,’ Mia said proudly. ‘Are you a doctor too?’

‘No, I’m a lawyer.’

‘What do lawyers do?’

‘Well, that depends really. You know how mommy has a rule about no dessert before dinner?’

Mia nodded.

‘Well, the country has rules too. And when somebody breaks them, someone needs to help them set things right again. So that’s what I do.’

‘Do you help people get desserts before dinner?’ Mia whispered, but as she was a four-year-old, it was still quite loud and Luisa could easily overhear from her strategic spot by the door.

‘Sometimes,’ Rose smiled.

‘Do you think you can help _me_ get dessert before diner?’

‘I don’t think so, Mia. Your mother seems to be pretty set on that one.’

‘Exactly,’ Luisa said, both Rose and Mia looking up, apparently noticing her for the first time. ‘I got the other photo book,’ Luisa said, smiling warmly at her daughter and Rose, happy they were getting along.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon went very well, Rose and Mia had taken to each other quite well now the first awkwardness was out of the way. Mia even managed to convince Rose to stay for diner, which Rose had only weakly protested against. But Luisa found that she didn’t mind sharing Mia with Rose. She had initially been afraid that it would be hard to see someone else act like a mother to her daughter, but Rose was still being cautious and keeping her distance, and even if she hadn’t, it seemed so natural, Luisa couldn’t do anything but encourage it.

As it was time to say goodbye, Mia gave Rose a long hug, which she gladly returned.

‘I am really happy you are not dead,’ Mia said as she pulled away, and Luisa couldn’t help but laugh.

‘I am really happy I am not dead, too,’ Rose smiled.

‘Can you come over again soon? I want to show you my toys.’

‘We’ll have to ask your mother,’ Rose said, looking at Luisa with hopeful eyes.

Luisa nodded. ‘Of course, but Rose really has to go now, sweetheart. She’ll be back soon, I promise.’

Mia seemed satisfied with that, she stood on her toes and kissed Rose on the cheek. ‘See you soon!’ she smiled.

Rose practically beamed as she quickly kissed Luisa goodbye.

‘We’ll text,’ Luisa smiled, happy everything had gone so well today.

‘She’s incredible,’ Rose whispered, her hand on Luisa’s wrist.

‘Well, it’s your genes,’ Luisa smiled.

‘It has nothing to do with my genes. You raised an amazing little girl, and I am so happy you’re letting me be a part of it. Thank you.’

‘Well, I’m just really glad you’re not dead, too.’ Luisa smiled, kissing Rose again, only breaking away when Mia yelled from her room.

‘That’s my cue,’ Luisa smiled.

‘Give her a goodnight kiss from me okay?’ Rose said, taking a step back but not yet letting go of Luisa’s hand.

‘I will,’ Luisa said before closing the door, and as soon as she did she already started missing Rose. She figured it wouldn’t be long before Mia would feel the same and they could start doing visits without her and sleepovers and everything that would follow. It would take some time but it was worth it. She knew that now.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, last time I thought I was being smart by just skipping eight months ahead and finishing early. But you all called me on that (plus you liked it and wanted more) so here is a second chapter with the lunch and some other bits worked in as well.
> 
> Enjoy!

‘Mommy,’ Mia started as Luisa put the covers over her, ‘when can Rose come see my toys?’

Luisa laughed, Rose had only just left, but it seemed her daughter had the same weakness for the redhead she had. They had only just met, but Mia had already bonded. But she shouldn’t be surprised, she had only know Rose for a couple of hours when she knew for sure she wanted to marry her.

‘Well, today is Sunday,’ Luisa said, sitting down on the side of the bed, stroking some of Mia’s unruly curls away from her face. ‘And you have school tomorrow, Rose has to work and so do I.’

Mia pouted before she remembered something. ‘Is she going to help people get desserts?’

‘Yes, she is,’ Luisa laughed, it amused her to no end that this was how Rose had chosen to explain her job to Mia, but it was effective.

‘But I know for a fact that she has Wednesday’s off,’ she continued as she smiled at her daughter.

‘I have Wednesdays off too!’ Mia said happily.

‘So do I,’ Luisa said, fondly ruffling her daughter’s hair. ‘So, should I ask her to come over then?’

Mia nodded furiously, her eyes big and pleading.

‘I’ll ask her,’ Luisa said, pressing a kiss to her daughter’s forehead. ‘Sleep tight, sweetheart.’ She smiled as she turned off the lights and left the door ajar. Mia wasn’t scared of the dark per se, but she liked to have a little light when she fell asleep.

On her way to her own bedroom she pulled her phone out of her pocket, checking the time. Rose wouldn’t be home yet, but sending her text couldn’t hurt.

“If your Wednesday’s still free, Mia would like to show you her menagerie of stuffed animals.”

She fell back on the bed with a smile on her face. Ever since that day eight months ago when Rose had walked back into her life, she had started smiling more. It was slow progress at first, she was hurt, incredibly so. But at the same time she didn’t want to let Rose go. So after she called Rose to set up their meeting the next day, she took out a pen and paper and started to make a list of everything she wanted to say and ask her. But nothing came. She wanted to know everything, why Rose had become a criminal, who had been threatening her, but most of all she wanted to know why she hadn’t taken her with her when she ran. It stung, it made it seem like she wasn’t important enough for Rose to take her with her. Even though Rose claimed the opposite.

She felt that if their positions had been reversed, she wouldn’t have done the same thing. Or maybe she would have, it was impossible to wrap her head around without knowing Rose’s side. Maybe it was better to focus on the present and a possible future together than it was on the past. She didn’t really want to know about Rose’s exploits, if she’d had a girlfriend in the years that she was gone. It would only make things more difficult but she felt like she needed to know parts of it in order to move on, to see if the gap could be mended. But she didn’t know what questions and answers would do that. In the end she had thrown the notepad on the floor, deciding it would be better to let Rose talk, she was better at that anyway.

_She walked through the door of the café, feeling sufficiently nervous; her heart beating fast, what if Rose didn’t show? But then she spotted a head of familiar red curls and her heart did a whole different kind of nervous beat. It had been so long since she felt like this, yes, it was completely messed up and impossible to make sense of, but she was glad Rose was still alive. But she couldn’t say that to Rose yet, she wasn’t ready._

_She clenched her fists at her side as she approached Rose, she didn’t remember ever feeling this nervous in Rose’s presence, but five years was a long time and things had changed._

_‘Hi,’ she said softly, appearing at the edges of Rose’s vision._

_Rose immediately turned her head and Luisa saw her blue eyes flood with relief. It seemed Rose hadn’t been certain she would show up, just like Luisa had been worried Rose wouldn’t. It was strange that they were both so careful and uncertain. From the moment they met, they had some sort of easy connection. When Rose said she would be somewhere or do something, she would, and Luisa would do the same. But it seemed that was ruined now. She just hoped it could be repaired._

_‘Hi,’ Rose greeted, her eyes sparkling familiarly. Rose’s eyes always sparkled like all the light around her had gathered in her eyes. Rose had been smiling softly, but when Luisa didn’t return the sentiment, she schooled her features into a more neutral expression._

_‘I have questions,’ Luisa said as she sat down._

_Rose nodded. ‘I will answer all of them, everything you want to know I will tell you. You deserve that.’_

_‘I deserve so much more than that,’ Luisa said, staring straight into Rose’s eyes, and the sparkle there dimmed a bit as Rose looked down at the table, her shoulders dropping._

_‘You do,' she said softly, looking back up to meet Luisa’s gaze. ‘And if I could go back and change it all, I would. It was a mistake, all of it. But I can’t, the only thing I can do is tell you the truth. To try and right my wrongs.’_

_Luisa sucked in a breath, trying to will the tears away. But it was no use, and as soon the first tear rolled down her cheek, there was no stopping it. They sat in silence for a while, Luisa trying to get her thoughts in order and her tears under control._

_‘That day, five years ago, I was running late and you were still upstairs. You told me not to leave before you could kiss me goodbye. But I had already been late twice that week so I laughed at you and told you should have been faster. But before I reached the car, you were there, spinning me around and kissing me. For me, at the moment, it was just a normal kiss. One we had shared a thousandth times before. And I didn’t understand why you ran after me, it was just a kiss. You would see me again in a few hours. But you did it anyway. And as soon as I got the phone call that evening, the first thing I thought of was that kiss. And that I was so happy that you chose that morning to run after me, because if you hadn’t, we wouldn’t had our last kiss goodbye. And that moment stayed with me all these years. No other kiss is as clear in my mind as our last one. And yesterday I realized, you must have known that was to be our last kiss. You knew what you were going to do and that is why you followed me outside, right?’ Luisa said, lifting her eyes up from the table top._

_‘Yes,' Rose said, sounding like someone was squeezing her throat. ‘I – I couldn’t let you leave. I needed one last kiss, a clear goodbye, something I would remember. And I did. I couldn’t forget it. When I was, gone, and it seemed I would never be able to come back, that last kiss reminded me why I was doing this. To protect you, to one day be able to return to you.’_

_‘Why didn’t you tell me? Couldn’t you have protected me better if I were with you? I would have gone with you,’ Luisa said, her anger at this whole situation flaring up again._

_‘I feared you would. And that is part of why I didn’t tell you. Life as a criminal isn’t easy, and life on the run is even worse. You didn’t deserve that. Our child didn’t deserve that. I had to do it alone. It was not the life I wanted for you.’_

_‘No, the life you wanted for me was to be miserable and heartbroken and raise our daughter alone. I was alone, Rose. I was a first time, single mother and a widow. Those first few months without you were the worst of my life. And I am an alcoholic, so that’s saying something.’_

_‘I didn’t want that,’ Rose said, her words catching in her throat._

_‘But it is what happened. I thought you were dead. For me, that was real. I had to learn to life without you. And it was the hardest thing I ever did. And now, now it seems I have to undo all the changes I went through. Because I still love you, I never stopped loving you. And seeing you should remind me of all the good times, but right now it only reminds me of the fact that you left. And I wish I could just put it behind me, I wish we could just pick up where we left off. But I can’t, because when I look at you I feel hurt, I feel betrayed. But when you look at me, you see the same woman I was five years ago. But I am not. Things have changed, we are no longer on the same page. And I don’t know what I can do to fix that.’_

_Rose swallowed. ‘When I left, I did it to protect you. And for me, it was the most selfless choice I ever made. And I knew it would hurt, hurts both of us. But for me it was the only logical way to keep you safe. And I wanted you to be safe more than I wanted to be happy. I never cared about anything in my life as much as I cared about you. And I truly thought I was making the right, selfless decision. But as all the times before, I was just being selfish. I only thought about my side, not what this would do to you. And I can never make up for that shortsightedness. I hurt you, while that was the one thing I was trying to prevent.’_

_Luisa pushed her chair back and stood up, Rose looked up at her with big, wet eyes. ‘There is something you have to see,’ Luisa said. ‘I don’t know if it will help, I don’t know if it will do anything. But I need you to see this from my side, you need to know how all of this affected me. Because maybe if you do, you can figure out how to move past this, you were always better at that.’_

_Rose nodded and stood up. ‘I would do anything to make it up to you. Anything,' she said, her voice laden with emotion._

_‘I’ll drive,’ Luisa said. Rose nodded and followed her to her car._

_The drive over was silent, Luisa was too absorbed in her own thoughts and the road to pay much attention to Rose in the seat next to her. And judging by the way Rose was staring out of the window and twisting the ring on her finger, she didn’t really know what to say either._

_She had noticed it yesterday too, but Rose was still wearing her wedding band. Maybe she had just put it back on the day before, or maybe it hadn’t left her ring finger in all these years. She looked at her own hand, where the silvery gleam of her own wedding ring caught her eye. When she put it back on the day before, it had been as a reminder of everything they had before, that it would be worth it to try and get past it. Because the woman who had put this ring on her finger six years ago was alive and still in love with her. And she knew she had to stop this overthinking, had to stop this grudge. Because they couldn’t turn back time, and Rose had given her the next best thing: a second chance. Rose had told her she would answer all her questions, but remaining in the past wouldn’t solve anything. She would still be bitter about all of this, and no matter how well Rose explained it to her, she probably wouldn't understand her decision. But if they moved past it, started over, she could learn to trust her again. But before she was ready to leave the past in the past, they had one stop to make._

_The sound of the gravel underneath their tires shook Rose out of her quiet contemplation, as she recognized her surroundings. She momentarily glanced over at Luisa, her eyes sad and nervous._

_Luisa pulled the car into its usual spot and got out, Rose wordlessly followed her a few seconds later._

_‘Luisa,’ an older gentleman in a discolored felt coat greeted. With his hollowed out cheeks and his mostly bald head, save a couple strands of stringy white hair, he had a lot in common with the occupants of the field._

_‘Mr. O’Brien,’ Luisa greeted, giving the old man a hug. They had developed somewhat of a bond over the past few years of visits. She came here a lot and Mr. O’Brien was usually the only one around, he always brought her tissues and cups of tea. Or sweets for Mia when she came with her._

_‘You’re early this week,’ the old groundskeeper said._

_‘Yes, But I needed to show… my friend something,’ Luisa said, not knowing how to explain the situation to the man without giving him a heart attack. Mr. O’Brien used to joke that he was one good scare away from joining his charges, but Luisa would rather not kill him._

_‘Well, it is just as you left it. Go right ahead,’ he said, eyeing Rose suspiciously. Luisa knew she had showed him pictures of Rose, but his eyesight was terrible and he refused to wear his glasses, so it was possible he didn’t recognize her._

_As Luisa retraced her steps between the familiar marble and granite, Rose followed a few steps behind. The only reason she even knew Rose was there was the crunching sound the gravel made behind her. Eventually they reached a white marble headstone and Luisa halted, Rose stopping next to her._

“Rose Diana Alver-Evans”  
~ Feb. 3. 1982 – June. 21. 2010 ~  
“Loving wife and mother, the night sky will never be the same”

_The first few weeks after the funeral, she had been here almost daily, crying her eyes out and whispering to the sky. Cursing the whole universe and whoever was in charge of it. It helped her feel connected to Rose, and much later it helped Mia connect to her other mother. Luisa still came here every week without fail. Mia came when she wanted; graveyards weren’t the best place for little kids._

_The flowers, pink roses, she’d left there the previous Sunday hadn’t even wilted yet and Mia drawing was still safely tucked under the smooth pebble they had found the first time Mia brought a drawing._

_Luisa didn’t turn around but she could feel Rose hovering just behind her, looking at the same thing she was. She had wanted to bring Rose here, but now she was looking at Rose’s gravestone she didn’t know why._

_Rose took a measured step forwards, kneeling beside the grave, her own grave. She gingerly touched a rose and picked up the drawing, the pebble clattering on the stone beneath._

_‘I am so sorry,’ Rose whispered, looking up, tears spilling from her eyes. ‘I am so – so sorry.’_

_It was the first time in all of this she saw Rose cry. And it broke something in her, she stepped forward and pulled a sobbing Rose to her feet, wrapping her in a tight hug. Rose immediately proceeded to bury her face in Luisa’s hair, repeatedly whispering ‘I’m sorry.’_

_Luisa cried too, her face buried in the crook of Rose’s neck. She wasn’t sure which of the myriad of emotions had brought forth the tears, but the only thing she could focus on was how good it felt to hold Rose, to have Rose hold her. And that she didn’t want to go without this anymore. Yes, Rose had lied to her for years. Yes, she had faked her death, their current location made that very clear. But she had come back, for her, for their daughter. And Rose was still Rose, criminal past or not. She had known after an hour that this was the woman for her, so why throw a possible future together away for something that was all in the past? And suddenly Luisa realized why she had wanted to come to the graveyard in the first place. She had had to say goodbye to Rose here once, and now she could bring her back. She could leave the cold marble of the headstone behind and have the real, living and breathing Rose instead. And if she owed anything to herself, it was to do that. She hadn’t come here every week to grieve for a lost love to throw it away when it returned. So when Rose stuttered out another sorry, she tightened her grip for a second before releasing Rose and taking a step back._

_Rose looked at her with wet eyes, tears still falling freely, she looked scared. Actually scared, Luisa only remembered one time she had seen Rose looked this scared, and that was when she was kneeling in front of her, asking her to marry her. To comfort Rose a little, she reached out and took Rose’s hand in her own, tracing the scar lightly with her fingers._

_‘I forgive you,’ she said, pouring everything she had into those three words. She wanted Rose to know that she meant them, that she had never meant anything as much as she meant this._

_She could see the emotion behind Rose’s eyes change from fear, to disbelief, to something she didn’t understand._

_‘You can’t. You shouldn’t. I don’t deserve that. Look at it, Luisa!’ Rose cried, pointing at the gravestone. ‘I did that! I made you think I had_ died _! I made you bury me, mourn me! You came here for comfort and every time you left flowers, or Mia made a drawing or you touched the headstone to feel connected to me, it was all a lie! Everything was a lie! And I didn’t think… God, I didn’t think… I thought disappearing was the best way to keep you safe. And it was, because you were away from me! I did all this. How can you say you forgive me? I am the worst thing that ever happened to you! I ruined your life! I – I – I have to go,’ Rose said, pulling her hand away and turning around._

_Luisa had always been certain she knew how to read Rose pretty well, the woman was a lawyer and a master of the poker face, but she felt she could see through all that. Of course, Rose had been lying to her all along, but right now, she could read Rose perfectly._

_‘Rose!’ she yelled, sprinting after her to catch the redhead by the wrist, much in the same way Rose had done all those years ago. ‘I forgive you. I forgive you,’ she said, pulling on Rose’s arm so they were face to face again._

_Rose wouldn’t meet her eyes so she said it again, tears streaming down her face. ‘I forgive you,’ she cried, wrapping her arms around Rose’s neck as she stood up on her toes. Their lips were barely an inch from each other, but Luisa wouldn’t close the distance until Rose looked at her. ‘You’re forgiven,’ she breathed, and Rose shivered and turned her eyes up, meeting Luisa’s, and the remorse she saw in those sparkling blue eyes was enough for her. She closed the distance, their lips met in a kiss that was soft and bruising at once. She could taste tears as she ran her tongue over Rose’s bottom lip, she could taste coffee as Rose gasped and opened her mouth. Luisa got lost in the kiss, in the familiar tastes and push and pull of lips. She had never forgotten what kissing Rose was like, not one detail had been lost over the years, but now she could actually kiss her again, all those memories became alive, the colors became brighter, the movements more fluid, suddenly everything was real again. And when they broke apart for air, she was grinning, because Rose’s panted breaths on her lips could only mean one thing: she was alive._

Luisa didn’t know she had drifted off to sleep until the buzzing of her phone woke her.

She blindly reached for her phone, assuming it was just a text message, but Rose her peacefully sleeping face was beaming at her from the screen of her phone. She had taken the picture months ago, when she and Rose had a sleepover and Luisa had woken up before Rose. She had always loved how calm Rose looked when she was asleep, so she couldn’t help but take a picture. She smiled briefly to herself before she pressed the answer call button.

‘Hi,’ she said, her voice a little rough from sleep.

‘Were you asleep? It is 8:30,’ Rose laughed.

‘Yeah, I was. You and Mia have tired me out. She wouldn’t stop talking about you, you know? I had to read her four stories and I am pretty sure she was judging me for not being you.’

Rose laughed again. ‘Well, I am pretty much judging everything for not being her, so I can relate.’

‘I am glad you two get along so well. You are still free on Wednesday’s right?’ Luisa asked, propping a pillow behind her head, conversations with Rose usually ran long so she should get comfortable.

‘Yes, my Wednesday is wide open,’ Rose said and Luisa could hear her smile over the phone.

‘Good, then on behalf of my daughter, would you like to come over Wednesday so she can introduce you to all her patients?’

‘Patients?’ Rose laughed, Luisa perfectly imagining the way her face would light up as she did.

‘Last week, she decided she wants to be a vet, so she raided our first aid kit and mummified her stuffed animals. But they are slowly getting better,’ Luisa mused, wishing phones still had cords so she could wind it around her finger. Or better yet, that Rose was just here in person so she could just play with her hair instead. It was not that she minded talking over the phone, hearing Rose’s voice was wonderful on its own, it was just that she was a naturally fidgety person and the long talks on the phone got boring. Not that Rose could ever be boring, Luisa just preferred talking with her in person so she could actually see the expressions on her face and the sparkle in her eyes. But by her own arrangement, this is what she got and she just had to be happy with it, for now.

Eight months ago, after she had forgiven Rose, it had been a slow crawl towards were they were now. As it turned out, it wasn’t that easy to just forgive someone, Rose was adamant about the fact that she should completely understand who she was before making that decision. So they met twice a week for coffee or lunch. Rose told her about her past, rectifying every lie she had ever told. And as Rose explained, Luisa started to understand her better and she saw that her forgiveness hadn’t been misplaced.

It was when they managed to have one lunch date where neither of them had cried, that she knew they were on the right path. That was also the same date Luisa had introduced the subject of Mia to the table. She knew Rose had been worried to bring her daughter, by rights their daughter, up for the fear of being shut out. And Luisa had to admit that the thought of sharing Mia with anyone terrified her. She was certain Rose would never do anything to hurt them, not after everything, but she was worried she herself didn’t know how to co-parent. She had always been a single mother, and she was worried Mia might like Rose better and that she would somehow lose her daughter now she just got Rose back. Rose must have realized this because she never brought Mia up herself, not even once. At first Luisa thought because she didn’t want anything to do with their child, but she soon realized she couldn’t be more wrong, Rose her eyes always lit up when she talked about Mia, she smiled more and asked lots of questions. She knew that Rose had been avoiding the subject for her benefit. And she appreciated that.

On top of her own insecurities, there was the whole: how do you tell a four-year-old her dead mother is still alive? So Luisa decided to wait, she was still getting reacquainted with Rose, Rose was still learning about Mia, and she was working on being okay with having Rose back in her life, _fully_ back in her life. But that meant that eventually Rose and Mia did have to meet.

Rose told her not to worry about it, she could wait and only wanted to meet Mia when Luisa was certain it would be the right time for everyone involved. Luisa loved that Rose was giving her all the cards, but it also made it more difficult, because what was the right time?

While Luisa tried to figure that out, Rose had settled into the city permanently; she had an apartment and she had even gotten a job at a law firm. So Luisa knew she wasn’t going anywhere. About four months after their reunion, they had almost rekindled their relationship to the level it had been before Rose ‘died’. They were having dates and sleepovers and just generally being a couple, except for the fact Rose still hadn’t met her daughter. Now, Luisa had never dated in the five years that Rose was gone, so she had no idea when she would have introduced her partner to Mia, but then again Rose was a different case altogether, but some framework would have been nice.

It was one evening when they had been lying in bed together in Rose’s apartment, Mia away at a sleepover with her uncle, when she asked Rose about the legality of their marriage and if they were still technically married. It was a completely random question but she had wanted to know.

_Rose smiled and grabbed Luisa’s hand, clinking their wedding rings together. ‘We technically were never married. Florida didn’t recognize our marriage and even if we had been officially married, I was dead in the eyes of the law, and as I don’t think there has ever been a precedent for this, it would have permanently been dissolved.’_

_‘So does that mean we can get married again?’ Luisa smiled, swinging her leg over Rose’s hips and moving to straddle her._

_‘If you want,’ Rose beamed, pulling Luisa in for a kiss. ‘But you get to propose this time, I am not doing that again.’_

_‘Why not?’ Luisa smirked._

_‘Because that was the most nerve-wracking thing I ever did,’ Rose said seriously._

_Luisa laughed, resting her head on Rose’s shoulder. ‘Was the bigtime criminal worried I would say no?’ The fact that she could joke about it now, meant that they truly had come a long way._

_‘Yes, I was actually,’ Rose smiled, stroking the bare skin of Luisa’s arms. ‘Scariest thing I ever did.’_

_‘I would never say no to you,’ Luisa whispered. ‘I love you.’_

_Rose momentarily tensed beneath her, it was the first time Luisa had actually outright said it. They had been dating again for a while now, but Luisa hadn’t yet had the nerve to say it. Until now._

_‘I love you, too,' Rose said, tears shining in her eyes._

_And Luisa knew the time to introduce Rose and Mia to each other was drawing closer._

After that, their dates and sleepovers became so frequent Rafael asked if she was seeing someone, and as Luisa didn’t want to lie about it, she and Rose had to come up with something they could tell people who had known her before. At the same time it was sort of a rude awaking, because before this, they had been in their own little bubble, just the two of them, with the occasional mention of Mia, and now she had to tell the outside world Rose was back.

So the witness-protection story came into being, it would work and it was relatively close to the truth. So when Luisa had another dinner with her father and brother, she broke the news to them. Rafael telling her she had lost it and that she was crazy, right up until the moment Rose walked in and told him that Luisa wasn’t delusional. She would never forget the stunned expressions of her dinner companions as Rose kissed her on the mouth and sat down next to her, smug smile never leaving her face.

Then came the questions, first among them if Mia knew. So Luisa swore them all to secrecy so she could tell Mia when she was ready, which turned out to be around a month later.

Mia took the news remarkably well, and Luisa suspected she didn’t completely understand. But after a couple of days of Mia not mentioning her mother at all, she came to Luisa one evening with questions of how and why. So she explained as well as she could and asked if Mia wanted to meet her, which was at first met with a very strong ‘no’ and a very firm headshake. Which broke Rose’s heart when she told her. But eventually Mia became curious and wanted more stories and information, and about a month after Luisa broke the news to her, she was ready to meet Rose.

‘Lu, are you still there?’ Rose asked over the phone.

‘Yes, sorry,’ Luisa smiled, rubbing her eyes. ‘Just lost in thought. I’m still here.’

‘Was I boring you?’ Rose asked amusedly.

‘You were talking?’ Luisa asked, she seriously had no idea.

‘No. I was thinking, too,’ Rose admitted.

‘So Wednesday? And I think I am just going to invite you over for dinner right away because Mia will do so anyway.’

‘Just Mia?’ Rose asked.

‘No, I want you there too. I want you here _now_.’

She imagined Rose smiling, and once again wished she was here with her so she could see it for herself. ‘Me too, I love you. And I’ll see you tomorrow?’

‘I love you too and I _will_ see you tomorrow. Night, Rose.’

‘Night, Luisa.’

Luisa hung up the phone and wandered into the bathroom, hoping that very soon there would be no need for late night (more like regular evening conversation for people who didn’t have four-year-old daughters) because Rose would just be there with her. She wanted to be a proper family, she wanted to come home in the evening to find Rose already there. She wanted to wake up in the morning with Rose in her arms. She wanted everything she had imagined she would have with Rose before the “accident” and more. And now it seemed it would finally become a reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As this ship isn't headed anywhere near a happy ending anytime soon, I decided to add another couple of chapters to this fic with more flashbacks, but mainly focusing on the happy ending they so deserve! So keep an eye out for those as well!
> 
> As always, comments are so very nice to receive (they got you this chapter after all!) so please keep commenting! Prompts and headcanons and other bits of information are also very welcome!
> 
> Tumblr now has a somewhat functioning messenger system, so come talk to me! [writersblockisabitch](http://www.writersblockisabitch.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I made someone cry last week (so sorry) this chapter is 99% fluff (I would just say 100%, but I am not that confident it actually is, it never is with these two). 
> 
> Enjoy!

‘Mia, get down from there! Rose will get here when she gets here. No need for you to fall through the window,’ Luisa admonished as she picked her daughter up from the windowsill and put her on her hip.

‘But mommy...’ Mia whined, pouting adorably.

‘She will be here soon, she promised after all,’ Luisa said, kissing the girl in her arms on the cheek. Mia smiled and kissed her back sweetly.

‘But she’s going to miss the operation!’ Mia protested meekly.

Luisa sternly looked at her daughter. ‘What operation?’ she said as she narrowed her eyes. Walking over to the kitchen to check the drawers. The last time Mia attempted to have an ‘operation’ she had cut the ears off her stuffed animal, Mr. Bunny, and Luisa had to reattach them for her.

‘Mr. Bunny fell of the bed and broke his ear.’ Mia said seriously.

Luisa, satisfied her daughter hadn’t managed to steal a pair of scissors from the kitchen this time, but on a serious doctor expression and put her daughter down on the edge of the table. ‘Does Mr. Bunny need me to look at it?’

‘No, because you are a baby doctor,’ Mia giggled. ‘He’s all grown up.’

‘Right, silly me,’ Luisa smiled. ‘Why don’t you go get him so Rose can take a look at him?’

Mia nodded excitedly and jumped down from the table, racing up the stairs to get her stuffed bunny and Luisa suspected a mile of bandages.

Just as Mia came down the stairs, arms laden with white bandages and stuffed animals, Luisa heard a car pull up. It seemed Mia had heard it as well. Her eyes lit up and she dropped everything she held in her arms as she flew down the stairs to open the door.

‘Mia!’ Luisa yelled. ‘What is the rule about opening the door?’

‘I don’t open the door,’ Mia said guiltily.

‘Right,’ Luisa said, giving Mia one last stern look before smiling. ‘Now let’s go welcome Rose,’ she said as held out her hand for Mia.

Mia smiled and took her hand, tugging her towards the door, obviously excited she was seeing Rose again.

As soon as she had the door off the latch, Mia sprinted through it, flying Rose, who was walking up to the front door, balancing two paper bags in her arms, around the legs.

‘Rose!’ Mia yelled, not letting go of Rose’s legs even as the redhead was struggling to keep upright.

‘Hi, Mia,’ Rose smiled, finding her balance even with the small child wrapped around her legs.

‘Mia, sweetheart,’ Luisa said as she approached them, ‘why don’t you help Rose with those bags?’

‘No, I got it,’ Rose smiled, kneeling down so she was on eye height with Mia, who had quickly released Rose as her mother called her name.

‘Why don’t you give these to your mother?’ she whispered loud enough for Luisa to hear as she fetched a small bouquet of roses from one of the paper bags.

Luisa shook her head but couldn’t help but smile as Mia almost reverently handed the flowers to her.

‘Really, roses?’ she laughed as she smelled them.

‘What can I say?’ Rose laughed, leaning in to kiss Luisa on the cheek. ‘They are my flower.’

‘You’re ridiculous,’ Luisa smiled as she managed to snatch one of the bags from Rose’s arms. ‘And what else did you bring?’

‘Well, you so graciously invited me to dinner, so I decided I would cook for you two.’

‘Really? You’re going to cook?’ Luisa said, eyebrows raised in surprise.

‘Yes, I am,’ Rose said smugly.

‘Okay, try not to burn the house down then,’ Luisa laughed.

‘I will have you know I did not just do nothing for five years, I took cooking lessons. I am quite capable of not burning the house down.’

‘We’ll see. Now go play with Mia, she looks about ready to combust.’ And sure enough, Mia was waiting for them on the porch, bouncing up and down excitedly.

Rose looked over at the excited child and her smile got impossibly wider, almost matching Mia’s wide grin.

‘I’ll put this in the kitchen?’ Rose asked as she motioned towards the bag in her arms.

‘Oh, give me that,’ Luisa smiled as she took the second bag and pushed Rose forwards with her foot. ‘Go play doctor with Mia. Mr. Bunny needs his ear bandaged.’

Rose kissed her on the cheek and jogged over to Mia, taking her hand and leading her into the house and up the stairs, gathering all the dropped toys on the way.

Luisa shook her head and followed them inside. Somehow she had gotten stuck with grocery duty while Rose was upstairs entertaining a four-year-old, typical.

She frowned as she took all the stuff Rose had brought out of the bag; it was mostly vegetables, and she was certain she had told Rose at some point that Mia was a picky eater, especially when vegetables were involved. So she had no idea what Rose had in mind, but she trusted her.

When the groceries were put away, she took the flowers to put them in a vase. She couldn’t help smiling as she cut off the ends. It was so typically Rose. She might pretend she wasn’t, but the woman was very dramatic and Luisa loved it. The roses reminded her of their first date, their first _real_ date.

* * *

_‘We are kind of doing this whole thing backwards, aren’t we?’ Rose smiled as she swung their linked hands between them._

_‘You mean sleeping together first, then randomly running into each other the next day while we are both on a date with someone else, where you promptly proceed to ask me out in front of my date?’_

_‘Yes, like that.’ Rose laughed, and Luisa subconsciously tightened her grip on Rose’s hand, she loved it when Rose laughed. The sound of it warmed her deep inside her core and the look of joy on her face made her weak in the knees._

_‘Nah, I don’t see it. It would have been backwards if we had a Vegas wedding first,’ Luisa’s eyes widened as she realized what she had just said, a first date was generally not a good time to bring up marriage. If someone mentioned marriage to her on a first date, she would have gotten the hell out of there. But Rose just smiled and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek._

_‘That would have been backwards. But come on, we’re almost there,’ she said, smiling excitedly as she pulled Luisa forwards._

_‘Rose, you didn’t even tell me where we were going!’ Luisa said as she followed Rose as best as she could. Rose was quite a bit taller than she was, with legs that literally went on forever, so she almost had to jog to keep up._

_‘You’ll see,’ Rose said, squeezing Luisa’s hand as she slowed down a bit, obviously noticing Luisa had trouble keeping up. They had been walking around in a part of the city Luisa had never been before, but the weather was pleasant and Rose hadn’t let go of her hand the entire time, so she was quite content with walking forever, but she was also slightly curious to see what location Rose had chosen for their first date._

_‘Here we are,’ Rose said, looking at Luisa with a look she could only call shy._

_‘A church?’ Luisa questioned as she looked at the white stone building in front of her._

_‘Well, technically yes. But we are not here for the building. Follow me,’ Rose said, once again leading the way. She disappeared down a small, hidden path besides the church, the foliage of the surrounding trees cloaking it._

_‘So, this is it. What do you think?’ Rose said as they stepped into a small courtyard._

_‘Roses,’ Luisa said, looking around with a sense of bewilderment as she took in the hundreds of colorful roses blooming around them. ‘They’re beautiful,’ she gasped, reaching out to stroke the petals of a deep red one to her left. ‘How did you find this place?’_

_‘I hid here once, from the rain,’ Rose explained. ‘Well, I hid in the church and the priest took me out here when it stopped. I had never seen so many beautiful flowers all together.’_

_‘They are lovely, do you take all your dates here?’ Luisa said teasingly, but Rose actually blushed._

_‘No, I don’t. You are actually my first real date.’_

_That took Luisa by surprise. ‘You have never been on a date?’ Rose asked, turning to face Rose to gauge how sincere she was being. Rose was beautiful and funny and wonderful, how could she never have been on a date before?_

_‘I don’t really do relationships well,’ Rose admitted, shy smile adorning her face. ‘That was why the 4 th of July was supposed to be a onetime thing. But I really like you, so I am willing to try.’_

_‘Well, I don’t have the greatest track record with relationships either. But this is a great first date.’_

_‘So far,’ Rose smiled, taking Luisa’s other hand and tugging her over the winding paths of the garden._

_‘There’s more?’_

_‘Well, I did say lunch.’_

_‘Yes you did.’ Luisa smiled widely as she spotted the set table Rose was about to walk into._

_‘Careful!’ she said as she took a quick step forward to put her hands on Rose’s shoulders, but she had apparently underestimated Rose’s ability to see behind her as she had just stopped, Luisa’s velocity causing her to walk straight into Rose._

_‘Hey,’ Rose said, Luisa’s actions had them all pressed up against each other, and neither of them seemed to really mind._

_‘Hey,’ Luisa husked as she pushed herself up on her toes to capture Rose’s beautiful pink lips in a searing kiss. It was easy to say that that had been the best first date she ever went on._

* * *

From that point on, Rose made it a habit to get her roses for every occasion, it didn’t matter if it was just a normal weekday or one of their anniversaries; Rose always brought roses. Luisa always found it incredibly sweet and funny. She still did. Just as she found the right vase, she heard some very excited feet come down the stairs.

‘Mommy, mommy look!’ Mia said as she jumped the last couple of steps.

‘What is it sweetheart?’ Luisa said as she turned around. When she saw her daughter, she had to bite her lip to keep the smile off her face. Mia had one bandage around her head, making her curls stick up at odd angels and another wrapped around her middle, making a weird pouch for Mr. Bunny who had been completely mummified.

‘What happened, honey?’ Luisa said seriously, knowing Mia appreciated it when she played along.

‘Mr. Bunny was scared for his operation so I showed him there was nothing scary about it!’ Mia smiled.

‘I thought Mr. Bunny only had a broken ear,’ Luisa said as she knelt in front of the grinning little girl, stroking some hair from her face.

‘There were completations.’ Mia said, deadly serious.

‘ _Complications,_ ’ Luisa corrected with a smile.

‘Yes, completations,’ Mia nodded. ‘But he will be better soon, Rose is a good doctor lawyer.’

‘Is that so? And where is Rose now?’ Luisa said as she straightened up.

‘Over here,’ Rose said, her voice sounding a little different.

This time, Luisa could not contain her laughter. She clasped her hand over her mouth but it didn’t matter. It seemed Mia had not been the only one who had needed to demonstrate to Mr. Bunny that operations were nothing to be scared of. Rose had the same bandage tied around her head, and while Mia looked adorable, Rose just looked plain ridiculous in her designer dress and heels.

Luisa tried to stop laughing as Rose shot her a look, but it was just too funny. ‘Oh, did you hit your head, darling?’ she said in between fits of laughter.

‘No,’ Mia said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. ‘She was helping Mr. Bunny feel less scared.’

‘Ah, well, I hoped it helped,’ Luisa said, biting her lip as her eyes shone with amusement.

‘It did, can we have a cookie now?’ Mia pleaded, putting on her best puppy expression.

‘I think you do,’ Luisa said, extending her hand to Mia. ‘You coming?’ she said over her shoulder as she extended her other hand to Rose.

Rose smiled at her and took her hand, following them into the kitchen.

‘I think you look amazing,’ Luisa whispered into Rose’s ear, earning her another look and a playful punch in the shoulder.

Mia let go of her hand and clambered on top of a stool, waiting patiently for her mother to present her with milk and cookies.

‘Do you want one?’ she asked Rose, holding the tin out to her with a smile as Mia was already happily munching away on her own cookie, feeding crumbs to Mr. Bunny.

‘Yes,’ Rose grumbled, taking one of the offered cookies.

‘No pouting.’ Luisa said as she lightly pecked Rose on the lips.

‘Hey!’ Mia objected, and Luisa could feel Rose stiffen and immediately pull away. ‘I want kisses too!’ Mia said, sliding down from her stool and walking around the counter to tug on her mother’s sleeve so she would lift her up.

‘Of course, sweetheart,’ Luisa said as she lifted her daughter up, kissing her on the cheek. She then followed her daughter’s lead and stared expectantly at Rose, who seemed to be frozen in place.

Luisa smiled at Rose to let her know it was okay. And Rose blinked and leaned in to give Mia a very quick peck on the cheek. As she straightened up Luisa could see the awed look in her eyes, and it made her insides melt. She surged forward and surprised a stunned Rose with another kiss, squashing Mia between them.

‘Mommy!’ Mia said as she squirmed in Luisa’s arms. ‘You’re squishing me!’

‘I’m sorry, sweetheart,’ Luisa smiled, putting her daughter down on the floor.

Rose looked at her with an expression somewhere between bliss and disbelief.

‘You sure you didn’t hit your head? You’re responding a little sluggishly,’ Luisa said, stroking a lock of hair away from Rose’s face. It hadn’t escaped her that Rose hadn’t kissed her back the last time.

‘Yeah, no, what?’ Rose said, shaking her head, making her hair bounce.

Luisa laughed, her arm encircling Rose’s waist as she rested her head on Rose’s shoulder. ‘You seem a little star struck.’

‘I think I am,’ Rose said. ‘She’s amazing.’

‘She is,’ Luisa answered, looking at her daughter sitting at the counter, sharing a cookie with her stuffed animal. ‘And I have never seen her take to anyone this quickly, she won’t even give Rafael a hug.’

‘Smart girl,’ Rose said.

‘Hey, that is my brother!’ Luisa smiled, poking Rose in the ribs.

‘Auw, I think I might need a bandage for that,’ Rose said, rubbing her side in faux-hurt.

‘Mhm, I think one bandage is enough for today,’ she said, eyeing the bandage on Rose’s head.

‘Yeah, I think you might be right.’ Rose smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes. ‘Mia, don’t you think your mother needs a bandage too?

Mia’s eyes went wide and a grin spread across her face.

‘Oh no!’ Luisa said, taking a step back. ‘I am not hurt, I am fine.’

‘Are you sure? I think you might have hurt your shoulder earlier.’

‘Mommy, please?’ Mia pleaded, already unwrapping a bandage from her stomach.

And that is how Luisa ended up with a thick, white bandage around her shoulder and two smiling redheads telling her how good it looked on her.

‘Well, now we’re all so nicely bandaged up, it is time for a picture,’ Luisa smiled.

Rose looked like she was about to protest that decision, but Luisa effectively silenced her.

‘Deal with it,’ Luisa whispered into her ear as she took out her phone to take a picture of the three (four according to Mia) in their bandages.

‘This is going to be my new background,’ Luisa announced smugly as Mia scampered off to start a new game. She was certain her daughter would drag both of them into it soon, but for now she and Rose had the kitchen to themselves.

‘You know, this is what I always imagined it would be like, raising our daughter together, just days spent at home, having fun, no pressure, just us three,’ Luisa said, sneaking her hands around Rose’s waist to rest them on the small of her back.

‘I’m sorry,’ Rose said, looking down at the ground.

‘Don’t be. Rose, it won’t do if you withdraw into yourself every time something like this happens. Yes, you missed stuff, but you’re here now. That is what matters. So next time I say something like this, you say ‘me too’ and you kiss me, okay?’

‘Okay,’ Rose smiled, her hand cupping Luisa’s cheek as she brought her in for a kiss.

‘Good,’ Luisa said as she pulled away. ‘Now let me take that ridiculous bandage off, I can’t take you serious with it on.’

‘Really? I thought you liked it,’ Rose laughed, unwinding the white fabric from her head.

‘Rose! You can’t take your bandage off! Mr. Bunny will get scared.’

‘Busted,’ Luisa whispered.

‘Well, you see…’ Rose started, taking a second to think over her answer.

Luisa looked between the two redheads in her kitchen, interested to see which one of them would win this. Rose was a lawyer and had an argument for everything, but Mia was incredibly stubborn and definitely had Rose wrapped around her little finger.

‘I think I found a solution to that, actually,’ Rose said. ‘You see, your mother kissed my head and suddenly I was feeling all better, so if she gives Mr. Bunny a kiss, he will get all better, too,’ Rose said, looking smugly over at Luisa, who was actually impressed with Rose. She had seen her take down the most carefully crafted arguments in the courtroom, but tricking their 4-year-old daughter into this was a whole new level of impressive.

Mia tilted her head and narrowed her eyes like she always did when she was thinking hard about something. ‘Okay, mommy kisses,’ she said as she unwrapped her stomach bandage to free Mr. Bunny so Luisa could kiss him.

‘See? All better,’ Luisa said as she slowly unraveled the bandage around Mr. Bunny’s head.

Mia smiled happily and jumped up and down until her mother handed her Mr. Bunny back.

‘Can we watch a movie? Mr. Bunny can’t really do much, he is still a little weak.’

‘Okay, what movie do you want to watch?’ Luisa asked, unwrapping the bandage from her daughter’s head.

‘Frozen!’ Mia chanted happily, and Luisa could barely contain her groan. She had watched Frozen too many times and the songs always stuck around in her head for the rest of the month.

‘What is Frozen?’ Rose asked, and suddenly Luisa remembered how far of the grid Rose had really been. She didn’t think anyone on this planet could have gone anywhere without knowing all the words to ‘Let it Go’.

‘Only her favorite movie,’ Luisa said, ushering a very excited Mia towards the living room. ‘It about a new Disney princess.’

‘So there’s _singing_?’ Rose questioned.

‘Oh, yes. Lots of singing, and all the songs are _really_ catchy.’

‘I see why you were groaning now,’ Rose whispered.

‘Well, you will be seeing it for the first time, I will be seeing it for the 50th time, and it really gets more annoying the more you watch it,’ Luisa whispered back as she sat down on the couch.

Rose choosing the other side of the couch while Mia loaded the disk. Once she was done and the movie was playing, Mia spent a second looking between her and Rose, before deciding to climb into Rose’s lap and make herself at home.

Rose was stunned for a minute before she relaxed and positioned Mia more comfortably. Luisa smiled and moved a little closer so she and Rose were hip to hip.

She still might not like the movie, but it was one of the best viewings of it she had ever had. Mia sweetly sang along with all the songs from her position in Rose’s lap, and Rose looked like she had just won the jackpot every time Mia smiled. It was very enjoyable even if she was certain the songs would be stuck in her head for a long time.

They then left Mia alone in the living room with a coloring book and a bunch of crayons, so they could get started on dinner.

‘I know I told you Mia doesn’t like vegetables. So why you did you only bring vegetables?’ Luisa asked as she chopped up some tomatoes.

‘Because I think I can make her like them.’

‘You are pretty confident for someone who once set the stove on fire cooking peas.’

‘I forgot to put in water one time!’ Rose laughed, efficiently chopping up some broccoli.

‘Your excuse was that they were frozen peas and that the water from when they defrosted would be enough to cook them in!’ Luisa said, throwing a piece of tomato at Rose’s head.

‘I was tired!’ Rose said defensively, sidestepping the thrown piece of tomato.

‘You set the stove on fire!’ Luisa said.

 ‘Well, I learned a lot in the past years and I am going to get Mia to like vegetables.’

‘You are delusional, but I will try anything,’ Luisa said, popping a piece of tomato into her mouth.

‘No eating the ingredients.’ Rose admonished. ‘You’ll get to taste it soon, but I will need that tomato you are currently eating.’

‘Fine. But I just wanted to taste it before it was burned beyond recognition,’ Luisa teased.

Rose glared at her, but continued cooking like nothing was wrong.

* * *

An hour later Rose was pouring three bowls of a thick, red soup with a smug expression.

‘See, I didn’t burn it,’ Rose said as she held out a wooden spoon to Luisa. ‘And I promise it tastes good too.’

Luisa narrowed her eyes and blew on the ladle of soup before taking a careful sip, not knowing what to expect.

‘Good?’ Rose asked with a smile as Luisa’s eyes widened.

‘That is really good. You _can_ actually cook,’ Luisa said, not able to keep the surprise out of her voice.

‘I did say I could. Now let’s hope our little food critic likes it too,’ Rose smiled.

To Luisa’s surprise and Rose’s relief Mia liked it. She finished her bowl in record time and didn’t complain about the taste once.

‘That is the most vegetables she has eaten this year,’ Luisa said as she and Rose cleared the table. ‘And I have never seen her this happy about eating them either.’

‘Well, I am glad she liked it, and I really think we should have made a bet on the outcome. I would have won.’

‘Really? And what would you have bet about?’

‘I don’t know, a kiss maybe?’

‘You can get a kiss right now, win or not,’ Luisa said, backing Rose up against the counter.

‘I think I’ll take that,’ Rose smiled happily, her hands coming to rest on Luisa’s shoulders as she drew her in for a lingering kiss.

‘Thank you for a great day,’ Rose said as she pulled away. ‘I loved every minute of it.’

‘Me too,’ Luisa said, she knew this moment was coming from the moment Rose pulled that afternoon. She knew that come evening, Rose would have to leave. She wished she could convince Rose to stay, to just move in with her right now, she was certain Mia wouldn’t mind. But Rose would say no, argue it was too soon.

And somewhere Luisa knew she was right, that even if they had been rebuilding their relationship for eight months, it would be too soon. But every time she spent time with Rose, it became more difficult to watch her walk out the door.

‘I should go, Mia has to go to bed soon and I have some work to do,’ Rose said, regret clear in her voice and eyes.

‘Is Rose leaving?’ Mia asked, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, sleepily rubbing her eyes.

‘Yes, sweetheart. You have to go to bed soon.’

‘Can she read me a story?’  Mia pleaded, already flashing her mothers her best puppy-eyes.

‘Why don’t you ask her?’ Luisa said, nudging Rose in the side, hoping the redhead would say yes. Not that she should have worried, Mia’s brown eyes were quite capable of doing that job for her.

‘Rose, would you please read me a story?’

‘Yeah, of course. But then I really have to go home,’ Rose said, more to Luisa than to Mia.

‘Yay!’ Mia said, jumping up and down until her mother put an end to that by saying she should go put her pajamas on and brush her teeth.

‘You could stay, you know,’ Luisa tried, her hand on Rose’s wrist.

‘It is too soon, because if I stay over now, I will never leave again. And Mia and I are just getting to know each other. If I was anyone else, you would say it was too soon.’

‘But you are not anyone else. You’re her mother too. And Mia likes you, she wants you to stay.’

‘She’s four, she wants everyone who gives her attention to stay over.’

‘You are being too reasonable,’ Luisa pouted. ‘I don’t want you to go, I want to fall asleep in your arms and wake up with you next to me.’

‘I do, too,’ Rose smiled sadly. ‘But it is too early, it is for the best, believe me.’

‘Mommy! Rose! Bed time!’ Mia yelled from upstairs.

‘I am actually excited for you to read one instead of me,’ Luisa said, putting on a brave smile. She knew Rose was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. ‘They will all be new to you. I have read them around twenty times each now.’

‘Well, I’m happy to help,’ Rose smiled, as she took Luisa’s hand in her own as the climbed the stairs. Luisa liked that that Rose always reached out to her. It was like she could feel she was on the verge of getting sad, and physical contact helped.

* * *

After three stories and plenty of kisses from both her mothers, Mia finally fell asleep.

‘She’s beautiful,’ Rose whispered as she and Luisa stood in the door opening, looking at a sleeping Mia, her red curls fanned around her head like a halo. ‘She got that from me,’ Rose continued as she noticed Mia sucking on her thumb.

‘I always wondered about that,’ Luisa said, softly closing the door behind them and making their way downstairs as not to wake their sleeping daughter. ‘She surely didn’t get it from me.’

‘I used to do it until I was about six, then I finally grew out of it. Does she bite her nails too?’

‘You bit your nails?’

‘I was a very nervous child,’ Rose shrugged. ‘I got over that when I was 15, and it took a lot of work.’

‘She doesn’t yet, but with how much she looks like you, I guess we have that to look forward to. Why are you smiling?’ she said as she noticed the warm smile on Rose’s face.

‘Because you said ‘we’ and I am just so happy I am getting to be a part of this.’

‘Well, you could be a bigger part of it already, but you decided to be noble and go home right now instead of getting in bed with me,’ Luisa husked, winding one of Rose’s curls around her finger.

‘Luisa, believe me, I want to stay,’ Rose said, covering Luisa’s hand with her own. ‘But Mia isn’t ready. I am not ready. I am walking on eggshells around her. I am terrified of doing something wrong. I am not a mother yet, it takes time. I can’t make decisions without looking at you. And it would be weird for you too if I suddenly start saying things you don’t agree with when it comes to Mia. I don’t want to mess this up, so I am taking it slow.’

‘I wish you weren’t making so much sense right now,’ Luisa sighed. ‘It would make it easier to take you upstairs and just not let you go. But you’re probably right, so go now before I change my mind.’

Rose smiled and kissed Luisa. There was no rush behind it, it was just nice and soft and comfortable. Everything Luisa needed to get through another night knowing Rose was on the other side of the city instead of in bed with her.

‘Go,’ Luisa groaned as they broke the kiss to get some much needed air.

‘Alright. I’ll text you when I get home.’

‘Please do,’ Luisa smiled, pushing Rose towards the front door. It was a system they had started very early on. It wasn’t that Luisa had abandonment issues per se, she just liked knowing that Rose had gotten home safe. ‘I’ll miss you.’

‘I’ll miss you, too. Maybe we can do something together this weekend. All three of us,’ Rose said as she stole a quick kiss.

‘I think Mia would like that. As would I.’

‘Great,’ Rose smiled, her hand lingering on Luisa’s wrist. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you, too,’ Luisa smiled, leaning in for one last kiss.

She stood in the door opening until Rose’s car disappeared from view. There absolutely was some truth in the things Rose had said, but she just wanted to ignore them and have Rose around 24/7. She looked at the bouquet of roses on the kitchen counter, wishing she could trade them in for the real Rose instead.

She picked one rose, the most beautiful one, from between the others and filled a small vase with water for it. She softly made her way up the stairs, it was too early for bed but she didn’t really know what to do with herself. Too many thoughts spinning through her head all of them about Rose and how she could get her to stay.

She put the flower on the table on Rose’s side of the bed and snapped a picture, sending it to Rose with the caption: ‘At least there is one rose in my bedroom.’

Luisa fell back on the bed, wondering how long it would take for the real Rose to be back in the bed they had only shared for a year before Rose disappeared. There was something she should be able to do to prove to Rose that they were ready, that they could continue to work on their relationship while she was _here_. But she had no idea what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome and so are any ideas you have for this fic (or others). 
> 
> See you next week!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is Sunday again and that means more happy family time! Yay!

Luisa groaned as she tried to pick up the spoon she had just dropped. She had no idea why but her whole body ached, it was like she had fallen down the stairs and landed on her head, which was also painfully pounding.

‘Are you okay, mommy?’ Mia asked, looking up from the crayon drawing she was doing at the counter. She was already surrounded by a stack of finished ones, all addressed to Rose.

‘Yes, I am. Thank you, sweetheart,’ Luisa said, ruffling her daughter’s hair fondly as she sipped her tea. The tea helped with the shivering and her sore throat. She knew what all those symptoms meant, but she didn’t want to see it. Besides, it wasn’t too bad and she could handle it. ‘Rose will be here soon, why don’t you go get your shoes?’ Luisa suggested. Rose had suggested they’d go somewhere together the last time they spoke, and Luisa had no idea where ‘somewhere’ might be. But shoes were always a safe bet.

‘Okay,’ Mia smiled, hopping off her stool and skipping into the hallway. She had been up exceptionally early that morning but it didn’t seem to affect her as much as it did Luisa.

After Rose’s departure Wednesday evening, Mia had spent the next couple of days incessantly asking questions about Rose. So many in fact that Luisa had just resorted to calling Rose on the phone so they could talk about it themselves. And now it was Saturday and Rose was stopping by and no matter how bad she was feeling, she was not going to call Rose and tell her she wasn’t feeling up for whatever she had planned because of a stupid cold.

‘Mommy, have you seen my shoes?’ Mia’s little voice piped up from the hallway.

‘Did you check underneath the couch?’ Luisa yelled back, her voice croaking in disagreement with the used volume.

‘Thank you!’ Mia yelled, hopping back into the kitchen with only one shoe on a little later.

‘Do you need any help with that?’ Luisa asked, staring amusedly at her daughter as she tried to do the laces.

‘No!’ Mia said, shaking her head furiously as she flopped down on the ground, very carefully putting her other shoe on and tying the laces. ‘Look mommy, all by myself!’ Mia said proudly, sticking her feet in the air.

‘Wow!’ Luisa started, only to be overtaken by a coughing fit.

‘Mommy?’ Mia asked concernedly, jumping up to roughly pat her mother on the back.

‘I’m fine,’ Luisa said, her voice a little hoarse from the coughing. ‘Thanks, sweetheart,’ Luisa smiled, getting a glass of water. ‘Why don’t you grab your drawings? Rose is here,’ she continued, watching through the window as Rose stepped out of her car.

‘Yay! Rose is here!’ Mia cheered, immediately working on getting her twenty-something drawings into a somewhat neat pile she could give her other mother.

Luisa left her to it and went to open the door for Rose.

Rose smiled and leaned in for a kiss, only to narrow her eyes at the last second and pull back.

‘Are you okay? You don’t look good,’ Rose said, bringing her hand up to feel Luisa’s forehead. When that was inconclusive, she softly kissed her forehead. ‘You have a fever,’ she said, looking Luisa in the eyes with a serious expression.

‘I am fine,’ Luisa said, suppressing a cough.

Rose narrowed her eyes and looked at her suspiciously. ‘You are not fine. You are pale, your eyes are watery, your voice is hoarse and you are running a fever. You have the flu.’

‘I do not have the flu,’ Luisa said, her voice sounding weak even to her own ears. ‘It’s just a cold.’

‘Yeah, sure. Want to go get a bacon cheeseburger then?’ Rose said, watching smugly as Luisa turned slightly green. ‘I thought so. You’re sick and going to bed,’ Rose said, ushering Luisa into the house, her hand resting on the small of her back.

‘Rose!’ Mia yelled as she bounced out of the kitchen. Clutching a large pile of colorful crayon drawings.

‘Hi, Mia,’ Rose smiled, bending down so she could hug her daughter.

Mia leapt into her arms and hugged her tightly around the neck. ‘I missed you,’ she said, kissing Rose on the cheek.

‘I missed you, too,’ Rose said, pecking Mia lightly on the cheek. She was still kind of unsure of herself when it came to showing Mia affection. ‘What are those?’ she asked, pointing at the drawings clutched in Mia’s hand.

‘I made these for you,’ Mia said, suddenly a little shy.

‘Can I see them?’ Rose asked, smiling gently at Mia.

Mia nodded, handing Rose the papers while looking down at the ground.

‘Why don’t we go sit on the couch and look at them?’ Rose suggested, her legs were starting to ache from bending down to Mia’s height and Luisa looked like she was going to fall over.

‘Okay,’ Mia said.

‘Good,’ Rose smiled, taking Mia’s hand in one and Luisa’s hand in the other.

Once they sat down on the couch, Mia climbing in Rose’s lap, and Luisa resting her head on Rose’s shoulders, Rose could finally examine the drawings Mia had made for her.

Mia explained what she had drawn, but it was quite clear. There were two stick figures with shocking red hair and a swatch of freckles and another with dark hair and brown eyes. They were holding hands with too many fingers, but Rose couldn’t help the tears that sprang into her eyes.

Luisa remembered the first drawing Mia had ever made for her. It had made her indescribably happy and proud. And now Rose go to experience it too.

Mia had made plenty of drawings for Rose over the years. But this was the first one Rose actually got to see. And Luisa didn’t know if it was because of the illness or just the emotions she saw on Rose’s face, but she couldn’t help but cry.

‘These are beautiful, Mia, thank you very much,’ Rose said, wiping her cheeks, kissing the little girl in her lap on the top of her head.

Mia smiled and craned her neck to look at Rose. ‘So what are we doing today?’ Mia said. ‘Mommy said we could go somewhere. Can we go to the zoo?’

Rose looked over at Luisa, who seemed to get worse by the minute and bit her lip.

‘Your mother is not feeling very well,’ she started, Mia immediately looking at Luisa with concern.

Luisa was touched, but she didn’t want to ruin Rose and Mia’s bonding time.

‘I am fine, really, we can go,’ Luisa said, getting twin skeptical looks from her wife and daughter.

‘You are not going anywhere except to bed,’ Rose said. ‘We can go to the zoo some other day, when mommy is feeling better.’ she said to Mia.

Luisa had expected Mia to protest, four-year-olds generally did that when things didn’t go their way. But Mia just nodded quietly.

‘Does that mean you’ll be going now?’ Mia said, clinging to Rose’s arm, burying her face in Rose’s shirt.

‘No, no, sweetheart,’ Rose said, stroking Mia’s hair. ‘I am not going home yet. I have to take care of your mother. And you,’ she said, looking at Luisa for support.

Luisa had no idea what to do, her head was pounding painfully and she had never seen Mia like this. Mia’s usual method of crying involved more screaming and stomping of feet.

‘I am not going anywhere, okay?’ Rose said, stroking Mia’s back soothingly. ‘We haven’t even gotten a chance to see if Mr. Bunny is doing any better,’ Rose smiled as Mia lifted her head up to look at her with teary eyes.

‘So you’re not going?’ Mia asked, her voice catching in her throat as tears still rolled down her cheeks.

‘No. I have to make sure your mother gets in bed first. Because she won’t do it otherwise. She’s stubborn, like that,’ Rose smiled, and Mia giggled.

‘I am not stubborn,’ Luisa pouted.

‘Then why aren’t you in bed yet?’ Rose said, putting Mia down on the ground as she stood up, offering Luisa her hand.

‘Because I am not sick,’ Luisa said between rasping coughs.

Rose just looked at her sternly and Luisa could feel her pretense falter under Rose’s intense blue eyes.

‘Mia, why don’t you go watch some TV while I get your mother to admit she needs to be in bed and not walking around.’

Mia nodded and started a search for the remote, her tears all gone as she realized Rose wasn’t going anywhere yet.

‘It is not that bad, Rose. I certainly don’t need to be on bed-rest,’ Luisa protested as Rose led her up the stairs.

‘Yes, you do. It’s the only way to combat the flu. Do nothing and drink lots of fluids. Which is best done in bed,’ Rose said.

‘But…’ Luisa started.

‘You’re not alone anymore, Lu. You’re allowed to be sick and in bed until you feel better. You don’t have to do everything yourself. I can help,’ Rose said, smiling gently. And Luisa realized that she had been doing what she had been doing every time she had gotten sick since Mia had been born; pretend she wasn’t so she could continue taking care of Mia, because Mia always came first. But now Rose was here, and she might be new at being a parent, but she trusted her enough to take care of Mia. That was what she wanted anyway, Rose back in the house, co-parenting with her.

‘You’re right,’ Luisa sighed.

‘That was quick,’ Rose said, one eyebrow raised in confusion.

‘I was being difficult because whenever I am sick, I still need to take care of Mia. But you’re here, you’re her mother, and I trust you. So I can actually stay in bed and feel miserable for myself while you entertain a four-year-old,’ Luisa said.

‘Good,’ Rose said, her smile a little sad. ‘I can take care of her, and of you,’ Rose said, steeling herself. ‘Do you want a shower first?’

‘Only if you’re joining me,’ Luisa teased, knowing fully well Rose would say no.

‘I can’t really take care of Mia when I am in the shower with you,’ Rose smiled.

‘Then bed is fine,’ Luisa sighed, laying down on her side of the bed, laying down did help with her aching muscles. ‘I hate the flu. Its main purpose is just making you feel generally miserable,’ Luisa whined.

‘I forgot how whiny you get when you are sick,’ Rose laughed. ‘Where are your pajamas?’

‘I am not whiny and top drawer on the left,’ Luisa said.

‘You are _only_ whiny when you’re sick. The other 360 days of the year you are an absolute delight,’ Rose said, kneeling in front of Luisa to take her shoes off. ‘Can you sit up or do you want me to undress you while you’re lying down?’ Rose asked.

Despite her general malaise, Luisa couldn’t just let that opportunity pass by. ‘You are quite skilled in undressing me while I am lying on my back,’ Luisa smirked.

‘Undressing you yes, getting you into pajamas after the undressing is something I have never tried before,’ Rose smirked back, leaning in to kiss Luisa on the forehead.

‘You haven’t even given me a real kiss today,’ Luisa pouted, knowing fully well she was being whiny now.

‘That’s because you are contagious and it won’t do for both of us to be sick,’ Rose smiled, stroking Luisa’s cheek. ‘Now are you going to sit up or not?’

‘Fine,’ Luisa grumbled, immediately getting a sense of vertigo as she sat up.

‘Sorry,’ Rose said as she took in furrowed eyebrows and the tight line of Luisa’s lips.

Luisa kept her eyes closed while Rose unbuttoned her blouse, removed her bra and slipped her pajama shirt over her head.

‘You can lay down now,’ Rose said softly.

Luisa nodded, which only made her head hurt worse, and laid down.

When Rose had replaced her jeans for her very soft pajama pants, and covered her with a blanket, Luisa could feel tears roll down her cheeks.

‘Hey, are you okay? Do I need to call an actual doctor?’ Rose asked, alarmed by the sudden tears. She gently stroked Luisa’s forehead and Luisa felt like crying some more.

‘It’s just,’ she started, blinking her eyes open so she could meet Rose’s concerned blue ones, ‘I forgot how nice it is to have someone care for you when you’re sick. I missed that,’ Luisa said, trying for a watery smile as Rose brushed her tears away with her thumb.

Rose smiled back. ‘I _am_ going to take care of you from now on. No matter if it is just a stupid cold, I will hand you tissues and deal with your snoring because your nose is all stuffed up. Or if you’re just having bad period cramps or something else you would normally just plow through, I will give you aspirin and I will hug you and I will pet your hair and just do whatever to make you feel better. Because I know you can handle it, but you don’t have to handle it alone. Not anymore.’

‘If I wasn’t sure I was going to make you sick in the progress, I would kiss you,’ Luisa said, smiling weakly up at Rose.

‘I know you would,’ Rose said, pressing another kiss to Luisa’s forehead. ‘Do you want me to bring your tea, or Gatorade, or do you just want to sleep?’ Rose said, her hand softly stroking up and down Luisa’s arm.

‘Tea would be nice,’ Luisa said.

‘With honey?’

‘Yes, please. And could you get me an ibuprofen? Everything hurts,’ she added meekly

‘Sure, bathroom I presume,’ Rose asked, already on her way there.

‘Top shelf, Mia might think they are candy so I don’t leave them lying around,’ Luisa said, not sure if Rose had heard her, because her voice was getting worse by the minute.

‘Do you need me to do anything else?’ Rose said as she handed Luisa a glass of water and the tablets. ‘A book, more blankets, something else?’ Rose continued as Luisa handed her the glass back.

‘Could you put on some music? I might get bored otherwise and come stumbling down the stairs,’ Luisa joked, being overtaken by another bout of coughing for her effort.

Rose looked at her in sympathy before turning around and starting to rummage through the stack of cd’s in the book case.

Luisa turned on her side so she could watch Rose. She might feel miserable, but for the first time in 8 months her mind was at ease. Rose was in their bedroom, taking care of her, and it felt good, it felt natural for her to be here when she was sick. And if it took a little physical discomfort to get Rose to stay, Luisa would happily suffer for that.

As the first guitar riffs of a classic rock song sounded through the speakers, Luisa felt her lips curl into a smile.

‘Interesting choice.’ She smiled as Rose sat down on the bed next to her.

‘It’s your comfort music,’ Rose smiled, intertwining her hand with Luisa’s. ‘Unless that has changed while I was gone.’ Her smile didn’t falter like it usually would when she would mention being gone.

‘No, it hasn’t changed,’ Luisa smiled back. Remembering how often she had played that cd over the years. There were the usual suspects, the anniversary of Rose’s death, her birthday, their wedding day, the 4th of July. All occasions where listening to the cd made her feel a tiny bit better.

It was a very old cd, and it started its life as a mixtape, but Raf had made a cd for her as soon as cassettes became old-fashioned. They used to listen to it together whenever they were on the road to some new location Emilio wanted to build a hotel. It was one of the good things left over from her childhood and now Luisa liked to listen to it when she was upset, it was comforting to remember the good things in her life.

She remembered when Rose had been introduced to the cd. They had already been married for a couple of months when Luisa first felt the need to listen to the cd again.

* * *

_‘Lu?’ Rose questioned when she walked through their bedroom door, only to find her wife sitting on the floor, her back resting against the bed, which was kind of unusual. But most concerning were the tears rolling down her face._

_‘What’s wrong?’ Rose asked, immediately sitting down on the floor next to Luisa, putting her arm around the brunette’s heaving shoulders in a half hug. ‘What happened?’_

_Luisa couldn’t answer, there were too many tears and her breathing was too irregular to get words out, instead she just buried her face in Rose’s shirt and continued to cry._

_Rose stroked her back in soothing circles, her other hand cradling the back of her head. ‘Whatever it is, it will be okay. I’ll do whatever I can to make it right,’ Rose whispered, continuing to stroke Luisa’s back until the sobs subsided._

_‘Can you tell me what happened to make you so upset?’ Rose said as Luisa pulled away to dry her tears._

_‘I’m not pregnant,’ Luisa hiccuped, averting her eyes._

_‘It didn’t take?’ Rose asked, lifting Luisa’s chin up with her finger so she could look her in the eyes._

_Luisa shook her head, flying Rose around the neck as more tears made their way down her cheeks._

_‘It’s okay, shh, Luisa, it’s okay,’ Rose soothed. ‘It will work. This was only our first try. We knew it might take a while. It’s okay,’ Rose continued, hugging Luisa tightly. ‘It will work,’ she said firmly._

_‘What if it won’t? What if I can’t get pregnant?’ Luisa said, her eyes red and puffy from all the crying._

_‘Luisa, there is nothing that suggests you can’t get pregnant. Getting pregnant like this takes time. You knew that from the beginning, we knew that. And we are not going to stop after one try! And even if you can’t get pregnant. We can always switch it up. I could carry our child or we could adopt. There are a lot of ways to have a child, and one isn’t better than the other. But Luisa, it will work,’ Rose said, smiling softly._

_Luisa took a shuddering breath, wiping at her cheeks. ‘Okay, I might be overreacting.’_

_‘It’s the hormones,’ Rose smiled._

_‘That’s just not fair,’ Luisa sniffed. ‘All of the emotions and none of the babies.’_

_‘Not to mention needles,’ Rose shuddered._

_‘Yeah, that too,’ Luisa said, smiling a watery smile. She remembered Rose looking away when she got hormone injections a few weeks ago. ‘I still can’t believe you’re afraid of needles. You squeezed my hand harder than I was squeezing yours, and I was the one getting a shot.’_

_‘I don’t know where it came from. I just don’t like them,' Rose said, squeezing Luisa’s hand._

_‘You do still want to try again, right?’ Luisa asked, suddenly serious again._

_‘Of course! I want nothing more than to have a child with you,’ Rose smiled, pulling Luisa in for a kiss. ‘You’ll be a great mom.’_

_‘So will you,’ Luisa said, not noticing the sad look that flashed across Rose’s face._

_‘Just one thing,’ Rose started, tilting her head as she listened to the music that was still coming from the speakers, ‘why Bon Jovi?’_

_Luisa laughed through her tears, resting her head against Rose’s shoulder. ‘It’s my comfort music.’_

_‘Really?_ You Give Love a Bad Name _, is your comfort music?’ Rose asked, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion._

_‘Yes, it is,’ Luisa said, poking Rose in the stomach. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’_

_‘Hey, don’t do that!’ Rose laughed, trying to bat Luisa’s hands away._

_‘Do you have a problem with that?’ Luisa repeated, still finding space Rose’s flailing arms didn’t cover to poke at._

_‘No, no I do not have a problem with that,’ Rose laughed, trying to squirm out of Luisa’s reach. ‘It’s just an uncommon choice for comfort music. And if you’d stop assaulting me I could ask you why Bon Jovi of all people.’_

_Luisa raised her hands in surrender, Rose eyed her warily but scooted back over so she and Luisa were side by side again._

_‘So why Bon Jovi?’ she asked, intertwining her fingers with Luisa’s._

_‘it is not only Bon Jovi, it is just classic rock. Rafael and I used to listen to it in the back of the car whenever we were moving to some new place. It’s a good memory. And the songs always stayed with me and now I listen to them when I am upset. It helps a little. To remember the good times,’ Luisa said softly._

_‘I get that,’ Rose said, leaning over to kiss Luisa on the cheek. ‘But can I shut it off now? I know some other ways to cheer you up,’ she smiled slyly._

_Luisa seemed to think it over for a second before jumping Rose, pushing her to the ground and moving to straddle her in one smooth move._

_Rose looked at her in surprise for a second before smiling widely. ‘I take it the music stays on?’_

_Luisa nodded and leaned down to kiss Rose properly._

* * *

_When Rose walked through the door that afternoon, she could hear Bon Jovi from the bottom of the stairs. And that was not good news._

_‘Hey,’ Rose said as she stepped into their bedroom, finding Luisa sitting on the floor by their bed again, curled in upon herself._

_‘It didn’t take?’ she asked, already knowing the answer to that question before Luisa even lifted her head and she could see the tears._

_‘No,’ Luisa said, dropping her head down to her chest._

_Rose shrugged out of her coat and set down next to Luisa, pulling her into a hug. ‘I’m sorry.’_

_‘I’m sorry ,too,’ Luisa said._

_‘You don’t have anything to be sorry for. It will happen eventually. And if you want to take a break for a while, just be us. That’s fine with me too. I just want you to be happy, Luisa.’_

_Luisa nodded. ‘I don’t know why it upsets me so much. I know how long it can take. I guess I just really want it.’_

_‘I know. I know. And if you want to keep trying we’ll keep trying. Because it will happen eventually. We’re trying to create a new human being. It takes time.’_

_Luisa nodded. ‘I love you. Thank you, for being here for me. Even when I am being ridiculous.’_

_‘I’ll always be there for you,’ Rose said, stroking her hair. ‘I love you. Even when you are being ridiculous,’ she said with a small smile._

_‘You are supposed to say I’m not ridiculous,’ Luisa said, her lips curling up into a smile none the less._

_‘That would be a lie. You are listening to Bon Jovi after all,’ Rose laughed, kissing Luisa’s temple._

_‘Don’t mock me,’ Luisa said, smiling a little wider now. Rose’s gentle teasing was almost as good as listening to her comfort music in terms of making her feel better._

* * *

_After two more failed attempts to get pregnant, Rose walked through the door seven months after their wedding to find the house silent._

_Their last IVF appointment had been two weeks ago, and she knew Luisa didn’t have faith in this either. Just like the last four times, she had not been showing any symptoms or changes, and Luisa took it as a sign that she would most likely not be pregnant again. Rose had tried to reassure her that it meant nothing, lots of women didn’t show symptoms the first two weeks. But Luisa had already put her comfort cd on in her head._

_But now Rose was home, and she knew Luisa had taken a pregnancy test like she always did after the two week waiting period was up, but there was no classic rock coming for their bedroom speakers._

_‘Is everything okay?’ Rose asked as she saw Luisa sitting on the edge of their bed, tears drying on her face as she stared at something in her hands. ‘Luisa?’ she continued as Luisa didn’t respond. She sat down next to her on the bed, the mattress dipping next to her finally got Luisa’s attention._

_Rose felt her sinking feeling disappear when Luisa looked up at her and smiled._

_‘It’s positive,’ she said as she handed Rose the plastic test she’d been holding. ‘I’m pregnant.’_

_‘You’re pregnant?’ Rose said softly, the full impact of the words not yet registering._

_Luisa nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks and a wide smile on her face. ‘We’re going to have a baby.’_

_Rose felt tears well up in her own eyes as she stared at the pink plus on the pregnancy test then back at Luisa’s happy smile. She couldn’t find the words to adequately express what she felt so she just kissed Luisa, hard. Trying to convey her feelings that way. Luisa seemed to understand her just fine._

_‘A baby,’ Rose sighed as she pulled back from the kiss. Somewhere during the kiss Luisa had pulled her on top of her and now they were lying on the bed, Rose still hovering over a beaming Luisa, careful not to squash her._

_‘A baby,’ Luisa said, rubbing Rose’s arms, it was the happiest she’d ever felt. And Rose would remind her of that happiness whenever she was vomiting up her breakfast the next couple of months._

* * *

‘Luisa?’ Rose said as she walked into the room, carrying a tray. ‘You awake?’

‘Yeah,’ Luisa said, her voice barely more than a whisper. It always surprised her how fast the flu got a hold of her.

Rose winced at how hoarse Luisa’s voice had gotten in the 10 minutes it had taken her to make tea.

‘Here you go,’ Rose said as she handed Luisa a steaming mug of tea with honey. ‘I hope that helps with your throat.’

‘Thank you,’ Luisa managed to croak out.

‘Will you be okay for a while? I think I might drop by my apartment to get some clothes.’

Luisa raised an eyebrow as she blew softly on her tea. ‘You’re staying over?’

Rose nodded. ‘If that’s okay. You are in no shape to take care of Mia.’

Luisa would have cheered if her current state had allowed it, so she just smiled instead. ‘That’s more than okay. Will you be taking her with you?’

‘Yes, I think that is the smartest thing to do,’ Rose said, stroking Luisa’s cheek.

‘Take my car,’ Luisa said.

‘Why?’ Rose questioned, her eyebrows adorably furrowed.

‘Car seat’ was the only elaboration Luisa gave before another coughing fit overtook her. Rose rubbed her back until the coughing eased and Luisa was only left with a sore throat.

‘Right, of course. Do you need me to pick anything up while we’re out?’

Luisa shook her head slowly. ‘No,’ Luisa said, taking a measured sip of her tea. The honey easing the pain in her throat a bit. ‘Thank you, Rose.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa gently on the forehead. ‘We’ll be back soon, if you need anything just call. And you better still be in bed when we get back,’ Rose said sternly, hand on the doorknob.

‘I don’t think I _can_ get out of bed,’ Luisa said.

‘That has never stopped you before,’ Rose said. ‘See you soon, okay?’

Luisa could hear some excited yelling from Mia as Rose announced they would be going to her apartment. And she couldn’t help but smile. It was nice that Rose was here, helping her out. She finished her tea and drank some of the water Rose had provided her with earlier.

She eased down on the pillow and closed her eyes, maybe sleeping would help with the ache in her head and the rest of her body. While Bon Jovi sang away she fell into a light sleep, only waking when the door to the bedroom was softy pushed open and Mia carefully peeked around the corner.

‘Hi, mommy,’ she whispered loudly as she sneaked into the room on her toes. ‘Are you feeling less sick?’

‘Hi, sweetheart. I am feeling much better, thank you,’ Luisa asked, surprised to note she did actually feel a little better, her headache was less pronounced and her joints felt less stiff. Her throat was still sore and her nose all stuffed up, but she felt less miserable. ‘Where’s Rose?’ she asked as she sat up, patting the sheets next to her as an invitation to Mia.

Mia smiled and sprinted over, remembering at the last second that her mother was sick and she was supposed to be careful.

‘Rose is in the kitchen. Making soup!’ Mia said, happily snuggling into her mother’s side.

Luisa smiled, Rose was taking the domesticity a little far. Not that she cared, she actually quite liked it.

‘And what did she say you should do?’ Luisa asked, tugging softly on her daughter’s curls, making her laugh.

‘See if you were still asleep and if you weren’t if you needed more tea,’ Mia said, obviously proud that she had been entrusted with such an important task.

‘How long have you and Rose been home?’ Luisa asked, she didn’t feel like she had slept that long at all, but if Rose was cooking and offering her more tea…

‘Long, we watched a movie while you slept. Beauty and the beast,’ Mia said, starting to excitedly talk about her favorite princess for the next few minutes.

* * *

‘Hey, you’re awake,’ Rose said as she came through the door, carrying a tray with a steaming bowl of soup and a large glass of water.

‘And you made soup, I heard,’ Luisa smiled.

‘I did,’ Rose smiled, ‘Do you want some or is your stomach still not up to it?’

‘No, I am quite hungry, actually,’ Luisa said. ‘And that smells delicious.’

‘Good.’ Rose said, lowering the tray onto Luisa’s lap, careful not to spill any soup.

‘Can I have soup too?’ Mia asked, flashing Rose her puppy eyes.

Luisa was briefly taken aback by the fact that Mia was asking Rose for permission and not her, but then she realized that was good. It was progress.

‘Yes, of course. But we’ll eat it downstairs, so we don’t spill any on the sheets,’ Rose said, looking over at Luisa.

‘But mommy gets to eat in bed,’ Mia pouted.

‘That’s because she’s sick. When you’re sick you get to eat in bed too,’ Rose explained, Luisa actually proud of Rose was handling this.

Mia huffed, obviously not satisfied with that answer. But then her frown disappeared and she smiled wildly in a manner that Luisa knew well; her daughter had just formed a plan.

Mia fell dramatically back against the pillows, letting out a huge sigh before doing a fake cough. ‘I’m sick too,’ she said, coughing again for emphasis.

Luisa hid her smile by taking a sip of her soup while Rose seemed to debate how to handle this. As this was a bit much for Rose alone to decide, Luisa nodded to let her know it was okay.

Rose smiled gratefully at her before putting on a concerned expression for Mia’s sake.

‘Oh no! Well, now you’re sick too. I guess we can all eat in bed,’ Rose said.

‘Yay!’ Mia cheered before remembering she was supposed to be sick. ‘Yay,’ she repeated, much more seriously this time.

Rose and Luisa both trying to contain their laughter.

* * *

After eating their dinner in bed together. Rose having informed Luisa that she had slept the whole afternoon and it was indeed time for dinner, Mia convinced both her mothers that they should watch another movie in bed.

Luisa knew Mia had already watched enough TV for the day, but she didn’t really want to be left alone in her bed, so she agreed. On the condition that they would watch Dora instead. It was at least semi-informative and Luisa wanted Mia to learn Spanish. They lived in Miami and it was part of her heritage, so Dora was a good start. Or so she told herself.

‘Dora is the one with the singing map, right?’ Rose asked as Mia had left the room to go get the dvd’s.

‘And the singing backpack, the singing fox, the singing bridge. Everything sings,’ Luisa said. ‘But they throw in some Spanish so it is at least somewhat bearable.’

‘You’ve been trying to teach her Spanish?’ Rose asked, her thumb tracing the back of Luisa’s hand.

‘Yeah, my mother would have liked that. It isn’t going very well though. I rarely speak Spanish myself so she doesn’t really pick it up from me.’

‘We could start,’ Rose suggested, squeezing Luisa’s hand.

‘What do you mean? You speak Spanish?’

Rose raised an eyebrow before dropping her voice to a whisper. ‘You don’t really do what I did in Miami without knowing Spanish,’ Rose said, keeping an eye out for Mia’s return.

Luisa didn’t really like to talk about Rose’s past, but it did make sense. ‘And you have never told me because?’

‘It never came up,’ Rose shrugged, kissing Luisa’s temple. ‘Until now.’

‘Well, let’s see if Dora does the job for us,’ Luisa said as Mia bounced back into the room, humming the backpack song under her breath.

After a couple of episodes of Dora, Mia making Rose do the songs and the Spanish exercises with her, it was Mia’s bedtime.

‘Goodnight, mommy,’ Mia smiled, kissing her mother on the cheek before hopping off the bed. ‘I hope you feel better tomorrow.’

‘Sweet dreams, Mia,’ Luisa said. ‘And I hope you feel better tomorrow, too,’ she added teasingly.

Mia’s eyes went wide as she remembered she too was supposed to be ill. ‘I am already much better.’

‘I can see that’ Rose smiled. ‘Now let’s get you into bed,’ she said as she took Mia’s hand.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity but was most likely three bedtime stories and a lot of goodnight kisses, Rose came back into the bedroom.

‘So how was your first day of being a fulltime mother?’ Luisa asked as Rose laid down on the covers beside her.

‘I would hardly call what I did being a fulltime mother,’ Rose said, smiling shyly as Luisa intertwined their hands.

‘Let’s recap, you spent the whole day with her, watched a Disney film, took her out, went shopping with her, cooked, did the dishes, and you put her to bed. I think that qualifies as fulltime.’

‘She’s great,’ Rose smiled. ‘I loved every minute of it.’

‘Yeah, you say that now. Wait until she has an actual tantrum.’

‘I am looking forward to it,’ Rose said, her smile not faltering. ‘And how are you doing? Feeling any better?’

‘Yeah, I still have a fever, my bones hurt, my throat feels like a rasp, but my headache is gone and I can somewhat breathe through my nose again.’

‘Good, let me get you another dose of ibuprofen.’

‘That would be great,’ Luisa smiled.

Rose returned moments later with the pink tablets and a glass of water.

‘I’ll just go lock up downstairs and grab my bag. I have to read some things for work.’ Rose said.

‘You better come do it in bed with me.’

‘Of course. By right back,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa’s hand before disappearing through the door.

* * *

‘Can you read some for me? Your legal texts always put me to sleep.’

Rose laughed. ‘If you want. _In so far as this contention is based on the view that Article 6 of the Convention has had the influence…_ ’

‘God, that is so boring,’ Luisa sighed, her eyes already falling closed.

Rose laughed softly and continued reading until Luisa was almost asleep. As Luisa could feel herself drifting away, Rose quietly got up. Which of course disrupted Luisa’s sleepiness.

‘Where are you going?’ Luisa asked, lifting her head off the pillow.

‘I was going to let you sleep,’ Rose said sheepishly.

‘And where were you planning to sleep exactly?’ Luisa questioned, she was really in no state to have this debate with Rose again.

‘Guestroom. You’re sick and I didn’t want to disturb you,’ Rose said, looking down at the floor.

‘You’re disturbing me now. Get back in bed, Rose. If you don’t, I will just follow you to the guestroom and sleep in that there with you. And that bed isn’t nearly as nice,’ Luisa said, staring pointedly at Rose.

‘Luisa…’ Rose tried, not very successfully.

‘I am not going to sleep alone while you are in the same house. I am sick and I want you to hold me until I feel better. Now stop being so damn noble and get undressed,’ Luisa said.

Rose sighed but did as she said anyway.

‘Will you go to sleep now?’ Rose whispered. She was laying behind Luisa, her arm slung loosely over Luisa’s stomach, holding her close.

‘Yes,’ Luisa smiled, feeling perfectly happy in Rose’s arms. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you too.’

And although Luisa still felt fairly miserable, it was the best night sleep she’d had in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone that made it to the end of this chapter! The fact that you all like this story enough to keep reading it means a lot to me! So thank you all! Without your comments this would still be a oneshot and without your ideas this would have been nearly impossible to write, so keep them coming!
> 
> See you next week!
> 
> PS. The legal text Rose starts reading to Luisa is real, it is the homework I should have been doing instead of writing this chapter. But as Luisa so nicely pointed out, it is quite boring and I would much rather write about these two finally getting to sleep in the same bed again!


	5. Chapter 5

‘Mia…’ Luisa groaned hoarsely as a soft kiss on her cheek pulled her from slumber.

‘Not Mia,’ a voice said as the kisses moved down from her cheek, to her jaw, to her shoulder.

And suddenly Luisa remembered the previous night, and she couldn’t help but smile as she recounted the feeling of Rose’s arms around her as she drifted off to sleep.

‘How are you feeling?’ Rose asked with a smile, still peppering her shoulder with little kisses.

‘Not great, but a little better,’ Luisa said, turning around so she could actually look at Rose.

‘Do you want a painkiller?’ Rose asked, already halfway out of the bed to get one for her.

‘No, I want you to stay in bed and hold me for a little longer, before Mia barges in to wake us up,’ Luisa said, capturing Rose around the wrist and pulling her back down onto bed with her.

‘What if I get you some painkillers and then get back into bed to cuddle with you?’ Rose smiled, her head tilted to the side adorably.

‘I guess that would work,’ Luisa sighed, letting go of Rose’s wrist reluctantly. ‘This is not how I wanted to spend my first Sunday morning with you in the house,’ she groaned, burying her face in the pillow.

‘Being sick in bed wasn’t part of your plan?’ Rose grinned as she walked out of the bedroom carrying a glass of water and two pills, tapping Luisa on the shoulder so she would turn around.

‘Well, being in bed was part of the plan,’ Luisa said, trying to sound seductive but the cough at the end sort of ruined the image she was going for.

‘Here,’ Rose said, offering her the tablets and water as she softly rubbed circles on Luisa’s back. ‘So what _was_ your plan?’ she asked as she put the now empty glass on the bedside table and got back into bed with her.

Luisa automatically tucked her head underneath Rose’s chin, inhaling the scent of Rose’s fabric softener. ‘Well, there was going to be kissing,’ she said, kissing the hollow of Rose’s throat softly. ‘Real ones, like on the mouth and stuff.’ she joked, Rose squeezing her tighter as she laughed.

‘So proper grown-up stuff,’ Rose laughed, kissing Luisa on the top of her head.

‘You would also be wearing less clothes, ideally speaking,’ Luisa smirked, sliding her hands up underneath Rose’s shirt. ‘But I could work with this,’ she continued, her hands sliding higher until she reached the underside of Rose’s breasts.

‘Luisa,’ Rose started, pulling away from their embrace a bit, ‘you’re sick. We are not doing this now.’

‘But I want to,’ Luisa pouted. ‘You’re in my bed and you’re beautiful and I want to touch you.’

‘And I really want to touch you too, but now is not a good time. Getting your heart-rate up with the flu is not a good idea.’

‘Fine. But you’re staying over again when I am better,’ Luisa said, looking pointedly at Rose, who bit her lip before nodding slowly, she hadn’t looked her in the eye.

Luisa was about to comment on that when their bedroom door opened an inch, sleepy brown eyes staring at them for a moment before Mia stepped completely through the door.

Mia had the worst case of bedhead Luisa had ever seen and her red hair clashed beautifully with the pink dinosaur footie pajamas she was wearing. She couldn’t help but smile as her daughter sleepily climbed into bed with them, somehow squeezing herself in between her mothers. One hand in her mouth as she sucked on her thumb and the other fisted in the fabric of Rose’s shirt.

Rose looked down in stunned amazement at the tiny redheaded girl that had immediately fallen back asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

‘Does she do that often?’ Rose whispered, looking down at her daughter in awe.

‘She likes to come cuddle with me on Sunday mornings. But this is her usual morning behavior. She wakes up, walks around like a zombie for a while and either falls back asleep or I get some breakfast in her and she wakes up.’

Luisa carefully reached around Mia to squeeze Rose’s arm. ‘She might sleep for a while, you can get up if you want to. She won’t wake up.’

‘And miss holding my daughter while she sleeps? I don’t think so,’ Rose said softly, her eyes never leaving Mia.

Luisa could feel tears well up in her eyes, it was the first time Rose had referred to Mia as her daughter. She didn’t know if Rose had realized what she had said, but it still made her feel intensely happy; this was what she always wanted.

So even if her original plan for their first Sunday morning in the house together had fallen through, the family cuddle session it had evolved into was pretty good too.

Eventually Rose fell back asleep too, Mia still clutched to her chest, and Luisa quietly snapped a series of pictures of them. Her two beautiful girls, sleeping together in her bed. After Rose “died”, she saw that dream go up in flames, but now it seemed that it had come true after all.

She smiled as she watched them sleep, suddenly remembering something she hadn’t thought about in years.

* * *

_‘Rose! Come here!’ Luisa yelled, smiling happily as she clicked on the first picture._

_‘What is it, Lu?’ Rose asked, still toweling her hair dry after her shower._

_‘I found it!’_

_‘You found what?’ Rose asked, hanging her towel over the back of an empty chair before leaning over, resting her chin on Luisa’s shoulder, looking at the computer screen over her shoulder. ‘You found a house?’ she questioned._

_‘Yes, I did. What do you think?’ Luisa asked her fiancée, turning her head so she could look at Rose, who reached around her to get to the keyboard. Rose’s long, wet hair tickling Luisa’s shoulders._

_‘Rose, your hair is still wet,’ Luisa laughed, brushing some water droplets from her shoulders._

_‘That’s because you interrupted my morning routine,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa’s cheek as she scrolled through the pictures._

_‘So what do you think?’ Luisa asked, fidgeting with her engagement ring. It was a new habit she’d developed ever since Rose proposed to her a little over a month ago._

_‘I like it, it’s a little big for just the two of don’t you think?’ Rose said, wrapping her arms around Luisa, nuzzling her neck softly._

_‘That is what I wanted to talk to you about, actually,’ Luisa started, twisting her ring around her finger. ‘Have you ever thought about having children?’ she asked, feeling Rose momentarily stiffen before pulling her arms away. Luisa immediately felt like crying, but Rose pulled out the chair next to her, turning it so she was looking at Luisa._

_‘I have,’ Rose said, taking Luisa’s hands in her own, squeezing them reassuringly. ‘And I never really thought I would have any, being a lesbian who dealt solely in one night stands. But then I met you, and I fell in love with you, and then I asked you to marry me. And thank god you said yes,' Rose laughed, squeezing her left hand, the one her engagement ring was on. ‘And I started thinking that if there was anyone I would want to raise a child with, it would be you. And I don’t know how we are going to do it or when. But if you want to, I would love to have some forty-odd children with you,’ Rose joked._

_‘Forty children, huh?’ Luisa said, trying to speak around the lump in her throat. What on earth had she, a recovering alcoholic, done to deserve Rose? ‘I don’t think this house is big enough for that amount, but maybe one or two,’ she smiled._

_‘Then let’s start with that,’ Rose smiled, leaning in for a kiss._

_‘Why haven’t you ever asked me what I thought about having children before?’ Rose asked as she pulled away from the kiss, still holding on to Luisa’s hands. ‘I mean, we are going to get married. Wasn’t that going to be a deal-breaker for you, if I wouldn’t want any?’_

_‘Honestly, I don’t think there are any deal-breakers with you. If you wouldn’t have wanted any children, I would have been able to live with that. I love you, you are enough for me. And I thought that if I asked you to have children with me, while you didn’t want to, you’d feel obligated to do it anyway. And that it would drive us apart and I didn’t want that. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.’_

_Rose nodded, pulling Luisa into her lap. ‘You are the best thing that happened to me to. And we’ll talk about the possibility of raising our forty-odd children together later, let’s first check out this house. I mean, we are getting married and we aren’t even living together,’ Rose said, looking around Luisa’s apartment._

_‘I asked you to move in with me when you proposed,’ Luisa smiled, wrapping her arms around Rose’s neck, as she softly nuzzled her cheek._

_‘You did. But then we’d just have to move everything twice, and I’d rather just get our first place together. And I practically live here anyway,' Rose said, kissing Luisa languidly._

_‘So you want to go look at this house with me?’_

_‘Yes, I like it. Let’s do that,’ Rose smiled, hugging Luisa tightly._

_A week later they walked through the empty rooms of the house from the advert. Following the realtor around as she talked about boring realtor things. Rose seemed to be paying attention to the woman, but she was a lawyer and lived for the boring stuff, but Luisa was just walking around, imagining what could be._

_Somewhere on the second floor, Luisa grabbed Rose’s hand, squeezing it softly._

_‘This could be the baby’s room,’ she whispered._

_Rose looked around, her smile growing as she imagined what it would look like too._

_‘I’d like that,’ Rose said, squeezing Luisa’s hand in return._

_‘So what did you think of the house?’ Rose asked, her hand still linked with Luisa’s as they walked back to the car._

_‘I loved it. It is big, it has lots of natural light, it seems to be in a good state, it has a nice backyard and I like the neighborhood,’ Luisa smiled. ‘And I could imagine us living there, after we paint over those hideous brown walls, of course,’ she grinned._

_‘I could see us living there, too,’ Rose smiled. ‘So, do you want to make an offer? I know it is just the first house we’ve seen, but if it is right, it’s right,’ Rose smiled._

_‘I have looked at a lots of adds over the last few weeks, this is the only house that spoke to me. And we are getting married and you can’t keep moving your stuff between your apartment and mine. So why wait? I love it, you love it. I am not sure what else we could want from a house,’ Luisa smiled._

_‘Okay, I’ll call the bank,’ Rose smiled, pulling Luisa flush against her. ‘We’re going to buy a house.’_

_‘We’re going to buy a house,’ Luisa repeated, standing up on her toes to catch Rose’s lips in a kiss._

* * *

_‘_ _Rose! What are you doing!?’ Luisa squealed as Rose lifted her up suddenly._

_‘Carrying you across the threshold, of course,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa’s cheek. ‘It’s tradition.’_

_‘You could have warned me,’ Luisa laughed, clinging to Rose for dear life. She knew Rose wouldn’t drop her, but it just made her feel a little saver._

_‘Where’s the fun in that?’ Rose smiled as she carried Luisa over the doorstep, gently putting her down in the hallway, but not letting go of her yet, pulling her closer and kissing her deeply._

_‘First kiss in our new house,’ Rose smiled, hugging Luisa close._

_‘I know another fun thing we can do for the first time in our new house,' Luisa smirked, already dragging Rose up the stairs._

_‘We don’t even have a bed yet,’ Rose protested laughingly, following Luisa up the stairs regardless._

_‘Like that has ever bothered you before,' Luisa grinned, pulling Rose into their new bedroom, kicking the door closed after her._

* * *

_‘Ro, it is three in the morning, please come to bed?’ Luisa yawned, she had just woken up and found Rose wasn’t in bed with her. Which did explain why she had been sleeping so dreadfully up until that point; she didn’t sleep well when Rose wasn’t there with her._

_‘Sorry, did I wake you?’ Rose asked, precariously balanced on a stepladder as she momentarily stopped painting the wall._

_‘No, you said you’d only be a minute and then I woke up two hours later and you still weren’t in bed with me. I don’t sleep well when you’re not in bed with me,' Luisa said, sitting down on the plastic covered dining table._

_‘Sorry, I just wanted to get this done,’ Rose said, leaning over to paint the last corner of the wall white._

_‘You can do that tomorrow. It needs another coat anyway. I can still see the brown through it,’ Luisa remarked._

_‘Ugh, still?’ Rose said, turning her head to face Luisa, forgetting she was on a stepladder and losing her balance._

_‘Fuck!’ Rose yelled as she fell to the floor._

_‘Oh my god, are you okay?’ Luisa yelled, jumping off the table and immediately kneeling at Rose’s side._

_‘Yeah, I think so,’ Rose said, lifting her hand to brush some hair that had fallen into her face away._

_Luisa gasped as she saw that the back of Rose’s hand was covered in blood._

_‘You’re bleeding,’ Luisa said, gingerly taking Rose’s injured hand in her own. The blood was a dark shade of red and there was an alarming amount of it._

_‘How did that happen?’ Rose asked, staring at hand in confusion._

_Luisa looked up at the wall, a view red splatters of blood standing out on the mostly white wall. ‘You must have scratched it on a nail or something,’ Luisa said, searching the wall for the culprit._

_Rose sighed as she looked up. ‘Now I need to paint the wall again.’_

_‘Really? You’re bleeding and that’s what you’re worried about?’ Luisa said, helping Rose stand up. ‘Doesn’t it hurt?’_

_‘A little, it’s just a scratch, Lu. Nothing to worry about.’_

_‘Nothing to worry about? Your whole hand is covered in blood! I can’t even see the wound! You probably need stitches. And a tetanus shot.’_

_Rose suddenly turned slightly green. ‘It’s really not that bad. We don’t need to go to a hospital in the middle of the night,’ Rose said quickly._

_‘Rose,’ Luisa said sternly as Rose tried to pull her hand away. ‘Let me look at it. And if I say you need stitches, we are going to the hospital to get stitches.’_

_Rose closed her eyes and bit her lip. ‘Okay,’ she said softly, looking smaller than Luisa had ever seen her._

_She must be in more pain than she let on._

_‘Come on,’ Luisa said, helping Rose stand up. ‘You keep that under the tab while I go find our first aid kit that is probably stuffed in some unpacked box somewhere.’_

_‘It’s in the cabinet on the right,’ Rose motioned with her good hand, her lips contorted in a grimace as the cold water washed the blood away, coloring the white porcelain sink pink._

_Luisa looked at her questioningly._

_‘It’s always good to know where it is in case you might need it,’ Rose shrugged._

_Luisa grabbed a bandage, some sterile gauze and disinfectant._

_‘Now let me look at that,’ she said, dabbing the wound dry softly with one of the gauzes._

_The ‘scratch’ as Rose called it was about 3 inches long and started filling with blood again as soon as she lifted the gauze. She didn’t suspect it was very deep, but it was ragged and would have difficulty closing on its own._

_‘We should really go to the ER. This needs stitches.’_

_‘Luisa, can’t you just bandage it up? I am sure it will be fine. You’re a doctor,’ Rose said, looking pale, and Luisa knew she hadn’t lost nearly enough blood to exhibit that kind of pallor. She looked almost, afraid. But it wasn’t the wound that had scared her. She had been fine with it until Luisa mentioned going to the hospital._

_‘Rose, are you scared of going to the hospital?’ Luisa asked as she bandaged Rose’s hand._

_‘What? No, don’t be ridiculous. You’re a doctor. That would be weird,’ Rose said, staring at her hand._

_Luisa narrowed her eyes. ‘Then why won’t you go to the ER?’_

_Rose took a deep breath, looking up at Luisa. ‘I am not scared of hospitals, I am scared of needles.’_

_‘You’re scared of needles?’ Luisa said, looking up at Rose in surprise. She had not thought Rose to be scared of anything._

_‘Yes, they make me uncomfortable.’_

_‘That’s – interesting,’  Luisa said eventually._

_‘Interesting?’ Rose said. ‘You think my completely irrational fear of needles is ‘interesting’?’_

_‘Everybody is afraid of something. I am afraid of spiders, can’t look at them without screaming, you know that. And being afraid of needles isn’t really that strange. I just didn’t think you were scared of anything,’ Luisa smiled gently, finishing bandaging Rose’s hand. ‘This will do for now, but if you start bleeding through your bandages or your hand swells up, we are going to the hospital.’_

_‘I can live with that,’ Rose said, sounding relieved. ‘You were saying something about bed earlier?’ she smiled, standing up and taking Luisa’s hand in her good one._

_‘Yes, and if you had just listened to me when I asked you to come to bed the first time, none of this would have happened.’_

_‘If you hadn’t distracted me, I wouldn’t have fallen,’ Rose mumbled._

_‘Oh, we’re blaming me for your clumsiness?’ Luisa grinned, elbowing Rose in the side._

_‘Hey! I am already wounded. You don’t have to make it worse,’ Rose smiled._

_‘You still have one good hand,’ Luisa said._

_‘I do. Want to see how good it is?’ Rose smirked, playfully pushing Luisa onto their bed._

_‘If you’re offering,’ Luisa grinned back, pulling Rose onto the bed with her._

* * *

‘Rose, please?’ Luisa begged. ‘I can eat breakfast downstairs, I need to get out of this bed.’

Rose looked at her with narrowed eyes. When Mia had woken for the second time that morning, she had started to quietly play with Rose hair until she too had woken up.

Rose’s sleepy blinking had been absolutely adorable as had been the look of adoration on her face as she recognized Mia smiling up at her.

Mia had convinced Rose to make them breakfast, she had already run downstairs herself to watch TV.

‘Are you sure?’ Rose questioned. ‘You still have a fever and you don’t look a lot better, yet.’

‘Thanks, Ro,’ Luisa joked. ‘But I am going stir crazy. Just let me eat breakfast downstairs than I will get back into bed. I promise.’

‘Okay, let me help you,’ Rose said, offering Luisa her hand.

‘I’m sick, Rose. Not invalid. I can walk.’

‘Okay, sorry,’ Rose said, putting her hands up and taking a step back.

‘You okay?’ she asked as Luisa groaned, swaying lightly on her feet from head rush.

‘Jup, fine, could do without the pounding in my head and sore muscles, but I think I can make it down the stairs.’

Rose didn’t help her walk, but she was hovering close by in case of a stumble.

‘What do you want for breakfast?’ Rose asked as she poured Mia a bowl of cereal.

‘Cereal!’ Mia said happily, drumming on the table with her spoon.

‘Not you, sweetheart. Your mother,’ Rose smiled, putting the bowl of brightly colored cereal in front of Mia.

Mia shrugged at her mistake and dug into her breakfast.

‘Just toast is fine. I don’t think I can stomach anything more.’

‘Just like when you were pregnant,’ Rose smiled, popping two pieces of bread in the toaster.

‘Well, morning sickness had its drawbacks, but at least I got to try all the different breads in the grocery store,’ Luisa smiled weakly.

‘I know. And I managed to perfect the difficult culinary treat that is toast,’ Rose laughed, putting the toast on a plate and handing it to Luisa, a steaming mug of tea following.

‘And what are you going to eat for breakfast, dearest?’ Luisa joked when Rose sat down at the table.

‘Cereal!’ Mia said enthusiastically, holding out a dripping spoon of soggy pink cereal to Rose.

Rose looked at it with narrowed eyes but accepted her fate and took a bite.

‘Wow. That is so sweet,’ she said as she swallowed.

Luisa slightly smirking at her, amused by Rose’s expression.

‘But really delicious,’ she added for Mia’s benefit.

‘It makes my milk into strawberry milk!’ Mia said happily, taking another big bite.

‘Wow, really?’ Rose said, ruffling Mia’s hair as she stood up, popping another piece of toast in the toaster.

Luisa laughed quietly as Rose shot her a warning glare. She had once been conned into tasting Mia’s cereal and it was 90% sugar and 10% artificial strawberry flavoring. It was absolutely the worst thing she had ever eaten, but Mia liked it and it was her Sunday breakfast, so she kept buying it.

* * *

‘Are you staying today too, Rose?’ Mia asked as she carefully deposited her empty bowl on the counter.

‘Yes, I am,’ Rose said, rinsing the bowl before putting it in the dishwasher. ‘Your mother is still not feeling well, and if I go now, she’s going to do all kinds of stupid things.’

Mia nodded. ‘Can you play with me when you are done taking care of mommy?’ Mia asked, staring up at Rose with pleading eyes.

‘Of course, what do you want to do?’

‘Crafts!’ Mia said, sprinting out of the room.

‘Where is she going?’ Rose questioned, turning to Luisa in her confusion.

‘Probably going to get the glitter,’ Luisa said, smiling when Rose softly groaned.

* * *

‘God, there is glitter _everywhere,_ ’ Rose whispered softly. She was working on the couch, Luisa leaning against her and Mia playing with her toys on the floor in front of them.

‘At least they are red glitters, they look just like shiny freckles on you,’ Luisa laughed, brushing Rose’s cheekbone lightly, her finger coming away with a couple stray pieces of glitter.

‘Very funny,’ Rose laughed, sticking out her tongue, before pulling Luisa closer to her and kissing her on the forehead. ‘You feel less warm.’ she said.

‘I feel better, too. And that while I didn’t stay in bed,’ Luisa laughed. She had refused to go back upstairs after breakfast, saying she was fine and would just stay on the couch.

Rose had begrudgingly given in, knowing a lost cause when she saw one.

‘Lucky you,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa on the cheek.

‘Can you just give me a real kiss? I am feeling _so_ much better,’ Luisa pouted, the affection was nice of course, but it was not what she wanted.

‘You are still contagious,’ Rose said, turning her attention back to her laptop.

‘You won’t even risk getting the flu for me?’ Luisa joked, resting her head on Rose’s shoulder.

‘Not for a kiss.’

‘What if I make it a really good one?’

‘Once you have eaten a whole meal and your fever is completely gone, I might think about it,’ Rose said.

Luisa sighed, continuing her pouting. ‘No fair.’

Rose laughed, kissing Luisa’s temple. ‘It is a sacrifice on my part too. I really miss properly kissing you.’

‘I know,’ Luisa sighed. ‘Guess I am still sicker than I thought. I am still whiny.’

‘Just a little,’ Rose smiled.

Mia put the dinosaur she had been playing with down on the ground, yawning widely and rubbing her eyes.

‘Mama, time for bed,’ Mia said, standing up.

Luisa frowned, Mia didn’t call her ‘mama’. And her eyes went wide when realization hit. ‘Mama’ is what she called Rose when telling Mia about her, before she came back from the death and into their lives.

Rose hadn’t looked up from her computer, apparently registering ‘mama’ as meaning not her.

‘Do you want _me_ to put you to bed?’ Luisa asked, just making sure she hadn’t misheard.

‘No, not you, mommy,’ Mia said. ‘Mama.’

And this time Rose did look up, her eyes wide with disbelief.

‘I’m mama?’ Rose said, pointing at herself.

Mia nodded, looking at the both of them like she couldn’t understand what was so difficult to understand about this.

‘Okay,’ Rose said, her voice soft and her eyes watery but an awed smile playing around her lips. ‘Let’s get you into bed,’ she said as she stood up, Luisa reassuringly squeezing her arm in passing.

* * *

‘How did it go, _mom_?’ Luisa teased as she heard Rose come down the stairs.

She turned around when Rose didn’t respond. ‘Rose?’ she asked, her smile faltering when she noticed the hot tears streaming down Rose’s face, and they didn’t look like happy tears. ‘Rose, what happened?’ Luisa asked, immediately concerned.

‘I – I - ’ Rose stuttered, sitting on down on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. ‘I – I can’t.’

‘You can’t what?’ Luisa asked, putting her arm on Rose’s elbow, thanking whoever that she didn’t shake it off.

‘I just can’t, Luisa. She called me mama, she said she _loved_ me! I am not a mother. I can’t do _this_. I can’t. I _can’t,_ ’ she cried, averting her eyes.

‘Hey, hey,’ Luisa soothed, scooting closer and taking Rose’s hand in her own. ‘Where is this coming from?’ she asked.

Rose looked at her with puffy eyes but didn’t answer. And Luisa suddenly realized that it wasn’t _coming_ from anywhere, it had always been there; Rose’s reluctance to stay over, to sleep in the same bed, the way she tensed up first when Mia walked into a room or said her name. Rose had been doing that from the very first day. But Luisa had always ignored it. Rose seemed to handle it so well, Luisa had forgotten how new she was to all of this. And that she was probably pushing her too fast. Or maybe it was something else, a possibility she didn’t want to think about. What if she had pushed Rose into all of this and Rose had realized she didn’t want it? That she didn’t love her or Mia anymore. That the five years they had been apart had irreparably damaged their relationship? And that that was why Rose was keeping her distance

‘Rose. Rose, look at me,’ Luisa said, tilting Rose’s chin so she had to look at her, trying to keep her own tears at bay. ‘Do you want to be here? You didn’t want to stay over, you tried to sleep somewhere else. And I can’t help thinking that you do not want to be here with us.’

‘No, no. I _want_ to be here with you, with Mia. I love you. So much,’ Rose cried, wiping at her cheeks. ‘But I can’t. Luisa, I _can’t_ be here. I – I am not a good person. What - What if I do something and mess her up? How can you let me near her? How can you ever trust me? I can’t be a mother. I can’t be in your lives. I don’t deserve any of that after what I did. I – I – have to go. I’m sorry,’ Rose said, standing up.

‘Rose! Rose!’ Luisa yelled. ‘Don’t you dare leave!’

Rose stopped walking, seemingly shrinking even further into herself.

Luisa kicked the blanket off and grabbed Rose’s wrist before she could take another step away from her.

‘You _do_ deserve this. All of this. This is yours, and you fought for it. You are not a bad person. And you are not going to mess our daughter up. She adores you! She called you mom today! You should be happy! Not trying to run away from us again. Rose, please sit down and let’s talk about this. If you love me, don’t go,’ Luisa pleaded, tears stinging in her eyes.

Rose took a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes closed, but when Luisa pulled her back towards the couch she followed.

‘Will you tell me what it was that made you so upset?’

‘Mia said she loved me,’ Rose said, taking shaky breaths. ‘And she called me mom. And I don’t deserve either of those things. I abandoned her, and you. I am not a parent, Luisa. I am a criminal. I don’t know how to be a mom. I have no idea what I am doing! I can’t be the mother Mia needs. ’

‘You already are, Rose. She called you mom today, I didn’t tell her to do that. You didn’t tell her to do that. She did that all herself. Because she knows you are her mom too. She trusts you, Rose. She _loves_ you. You _are_ a parent now. And yes, you’ll probably make mistakes. But you are not going to screw are daughter up. Making mistakes is normal, every parent makes them! And I am here too. I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning either. You learn while doing it. So stop doubting yourself. If you don’t trust yourself, I don’t care, I trust you. I believe you are a good person, that you have changed. I trust you to take care of Mia. You are a great mom. So stop saying you don’t deserve this. You do, you absolutely do. You’ve changed, you are not a bad person. And Mia and I want you in our lives. We love you,’ Luisa said her voice cracking, wiping at her tears.

‘I love you too. And I am sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to leave. I know how that affects you,’ Rose hiccuped, gently taking Luisa’s hand and squeezing it.

Luisa smiled and wrapped her arms around Rose’s neck, hugging her tightly. ‘It’s okay. I forgot that you must have complicated feelings about this too. I am sorry I pushed you.’

‘It’s – It’s okay,’ Rose said, showing her a watery smile. ‘She said she loved me and I just panicked. But you’re right. You learn by doing, and I should stop trying to put distance between us. It’s just, a reflex I guess. Distance is how I protect you two from me. But I see now that that is what was hurting you instead. Just like the first time,’ Rose said, her head dropping down to her chest.

‘Is that why you wanted to sleep in the guestroom yesterday?’

‘Yes,’ Rose admitted, looking back up at Luisa. ‘I thought that if I stayed in bed with you, I would never want to leave again. And if I stayed, I would eventually hurt you both, and I didn’t want that,’ Rose sniffed, drying the last few tears on her cheek with the back of her hand.

Luisa smiled. ‘You’re an idiot, you know that?’

Rose looked at her in confusion.

‘You are the smartest person I know. But you are an idiot.’ Luisa laughed, hugging Rose tighter. ‘From now on, just talk to me when I am rushing you, okay? Tell me what you are thinking. I want to know. I want you to be comfortable here with us. And if you need more time, that is okay. I’ll give you more time. Just, don’t try to hide your feelings from me. You don’t have to pretend you are strong. I know you are, but I also know you have feelings.’

‘I don’t need more time. I think. You were right. You learn by doing. And I can’t do that if I am not here.’

‘Does that mean you’re moving in?’ Luisa asked, a beaming smile breaking across her face.

 ‘If you would have me,’ Rose said, also smiling.

‘Of course, you idiot!’ Luisa said, leaning in for a kiss, stopping at the last moment as she remembered she was still sick. ‘You have terrible timing, you know?’ she groaned, resting her head on Rose’s shoulder instead. ‘You’re finally moving back into the house after all this time, and we can’t even celebrate.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa on the top of her head. ‘I’ll make it up to you when you’re better.’

‘You better,’ Luisa pouted. ‘Now come to bed with me. If we can’t kiss, we can at least cuddle in our bed for a bit,’ Luisa smiled.

‘I’d like that,’ Rose said, her hand on the small of Luisa’s back as they walked up to their bedroom.

That night Luisa fell asleep with Rose in her arms, and the only thing that could break them apart was the buzz of her alarm in the morning, or Mia. But Luisa was not going to let her go for anything else. Nothing was going to pull them apart ever again. Least of all their own behavior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we're nearing the end of this domestic adventure, Rose is moving in, Mia called her mama, I don't think there is a lot left to say. So if you really, really, really want me to fit something else into this AU, please tell me so I can put it in!
> 
> Thanks for all your support and kind words, it means the world to me!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry I am a day late, I had a terrible writer's block this weekend and I ended up redoing the entire chapter today because I wasn't happy with what I had written. 
> 
> I am happy with this version though, so I hope you'll like it too.
> 
> Warning, the rating for this chapter should be adjusted to M, because there is sexual content, because some of you asked me and I thought it fit well in this chapter.
> 
> Enjoy!

‘She’s finally asleep,’ Rose whispered as she walked through their bedroom door, which after years of just being Luisa’s bedroom was finally _theirs_ again.

Rose had finished moving in last week. There hadn’t been much actual _moving_ involved as Rose only had some clothes and books at her apartment to begin with. And all of her stuff could have easily been hauled to the house in one go, but it had taken her three weeks to finish moving in. There had been no hurry behind it, Rose picked up the occasional box after work and that was it.

She hadn’t been sleeping in the apartment since her emotional breakdown on the couch that Sunday weeks ago. For all appearance she’d moved in that day, only her stuff had to follow. And now Rose’s lease was up, the last of her stuff had been moved over. Making it official.

Luisa came home that day to the symbolic last box with books open on the kitchen table. Mia standing on a chair to peer into it, taking out a law book, leafing through it, noticing there were no pictures and putting it to the side as she checked the next one for the same thing.

Coming home and finding Rose and their daughter in the kitchen would never seize to amaze her. It was so incredibly of domestic and perfect and she had no idea how much she had missed having someone to come home to until Rose was just there every evening.

‘Thank god,’ Luisa groaned, burying her head in the pillow. Mia’s birthday was only a few days away, and as four, almost five-year-olds always did, her birthday was met with a lot of nervous anticipation, which manifested in a lot of sleepless nights for all of them.

‘Is she always like this?’ Rose asked as she shed her robe and crawled into bed next to Luisa, who immediately moved into her arms.

‘It’s worse this year,’ Luisa sighed, getting comfortable in Rose’s embrace. ‘She’s getting older and understands the idea of _gifts_ better. And you’re here, so that probably doesn’t help.

‘So you’re saying it is my fault?’ Rose laughed, kissing the top Luisa’s head.

‘No, yes, maybe. I don’t know. I am too tired to think,’ Luisa said, hiding her yawn in the soft cotton of Rose’s shirt.

‘Then sleep, I have the feeling she’s going to wake us up really early tomorrow morning.’

‘I can’t,’ Luisa said, nudging her shirt out of the way and kissing Rose’s collarbone softly. ‘You’ve been living here for three weeks and we haven’t even had sex yet.’

‘It is not for lack of effort,’ Rose smiled, rolling over so she was now hovering over Luisa. ‘We. Just. Keep. Getting. Interrupted,’ she smiled, each word punctuated by a kiss.

‘Your daughter has terrible timing,’ Luisa grinned as she pushed her hands up under Rose’s shirt, caressing her sides teasingly.

‘Oh, so she’s my daughter when she knocks on our door when I am seconds away from ravaging you, but she is your daughter when she recites the alphabet,’ Rose grinned, kissing a trail down the column of Luisa’s throat.

‘At least she knocks,’ Luisa said, arching her back slightly as Rose sucked on her pulse point.

The words weren’t out of her mouth or there was a soft knock on their bedroom door followed by: ‘Mama, I’m thirsty.’

‘This is your fault,’ Luisa said, lightly punching Rose in the shoulder as Rose rolled off of her to get their daughter some water.

‘How is this my fault? I just put her to bed,’ Rose hissed.

‘You jinxed it.’

‘I jinxed it?’ Rose said, shrugging on her dressing gown, making sure her shirt was still covering everything.

‘Yes, you,’ Luisa said. ‘Now get her some water and get back in bed,’ she sighed, pulling the covers higher until she was almost hidden underneath them.

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Rose sighed, hoping Mia really only wanted a glass of water and that she’d be able to get back into bed quickly and hopefully finish what they started.

It didn’t turn out like that. Mia drank half of her water and then promptly spilled the rest all over herself, resulting in another visit to the bathroom and a debate about which pajamas to change into.

When Rose walked back into their bedroom nearly half an hour later, Luisa was fast asleep.

‘Of course,’ Rose sighed, silently slipping back into bed. Waking Luisa wouldn’t be worth it, they both needed to catch up on some sleep and Mia would probably be up soon anyway.

* * *

‘What time is it?’ Rose yawned as Luisa placed insistent kisses all over her jaw.

‘Five,’ Luisa said, her voice still hoarse from sleep.

‘That’s too early,’ Rose groaned, turning around and trying to get back to sleep for another hour or so before Mia woke them up. She hadn’t needed to set an alarm since she moved in. She didn’t know if she preferred the shrill beeps of her alarm or her daughter bouncing up and down on the bed as a method of waking up.

‘I know,’ Luisa husked, sweeping Rose’s hair to the side and pressing a soft kiss behind her ear.

The electricity of the gentle kiss suddenly had her feeling wide awake.

‘Now she gets it,’ Luisa laughed as Rose gripped Luisa’s hips and lifted her on top off her.

‘Good morning,’ Luisa smiled as she bent down to kiss Rose properly, her hands already running up beneath Rose’s shirt, who knew how much time they had before their daughter decided to interrupt them again?

Rose kissed back hungrily, flipping them over so she was now on top.

Luisa gasped in surprise as Rose skillfully turned the tables on her. But when the surprise wore off, she found she didn’t really care who was on top. She actually kind of liked it this way.

She moved her hands up to cup Rose’s breasts, smiling as Rose bit her lip to censor the soft moan that had been threatening to spill forth.

‘You have to be quiet,’ Luisa whispered, rolling Rose’s already stiff nipples between her fingers, pulling softly in the way she knew made Rose weak.

‘You are not making it easy,’ Rose smiled, trying very hard not to make the noises she normally would during sex with Luisa.

Both of them were trying very hard to prevent waking Mia and being walked in on for the 100th time before they could finish. It was getting all kinds of frustrating.

Rose kept biting her lip as Luisa continued to lavish attention to her breasts.

‘Take it off,’ Luisa husked, getting frustrated by the limited space the confines of Rose’s shirt offered. ‘I want to see you.’

Rose smiled and leaned in for a quick kiss before she lifted her shirt up, as soon as she pulled it over her head Luisa pulled her down by her shoulders and took one of Rose’s nipples into her mouth.

Rose, who was already sensitive from Luisa’s hands on her, couldn’t hold back the loudly whispered “fuck” as Luisa swirled her tongue around the stiff peak.

‘Ssh,’ Luisa admonished, but she couldn’t help but smile at Rose’s inability to keep quiet. Rose had always been very vocal during sex, and except for the occasional power play, there had never been any reason to keep quiet before. But she really had to if they wanted to see this all the way to the end.

‘You try being silent while you’re doing _that,_ ’ Rose murmured, resting her head on Luisa’s shoulder, biting down softly when Luisa decided that was all the time they could spend on foreplay and bypassed the elastic of Rose’s shorts to find her wet and wanting.

‘Luisa, please,’ Rose begged, her eyes screwed shut and rolling her hips into Luisa’s palm, aching for the contact that the circumstances had so cruelly denied them for the past few weeks.

Luisa let out a low moan as she found out exactly how wet Rose was for her, but she assumed she probably wasn’t faring much better herself. It was one thing to be unable to have sex because Rose was “dead”, it was quite another to have Rose right there in bed next to her but not be able to do much more than kissing and occasionally copping a feel. It was safe to say this was the most sexually frustrated she had ever been since she was a teenager.

Rose shifted a bit so her leg slotted between Luisa’s perfectly, finally giving her something solid to rock against.

Luisa gasped as Rose slipped a hand between their bodies and easily found her clit. Rose matched her rhythm perfectly, despite how far gone she herself was.

Soon they were both forgetting they were supposed to be quiet, their moans and gasps coming out loudly and frequently.

Luisa was so very close to falling over the edge when Rose just stopped. Putting her hand on Luisa’s wrist to get her to stop too.

‘What are you doing?’ Luisa hissed, she had been so close, goddammit.

The answer came in the form of a slow knock on their bedroom door. She had no idea how Rose had heard their daughter approaching with all the sounds they had been making, but she had.

‘This is the worst one yet,’ Rose groaned as she patted the sheets next to her for her shirt, slipping it over her head before rolling off of Luisa, both of them staring at the ceiling for a couple of seconds.

‘Shower together later?’ Luisa suggested as Rose got out of bed to let Mia in.

Rose nodded before opening the door. They hadn’t locked it, but with the way things were going, they were soon going to have to.

Mia was still in zombie-mode and the only thing she did when Rose picked her up and carried her to bed, was suck on her thumb and cling to Rose’s shirt.

‘Good morning, pumpkin,’ Rose smiled as she put a very groggy Mia down between them as she always did when Mia woke up too late to be put back to bed but too early to go downstairs.

Luisa couldn’t help but smile at the adorable nickname Rose had given their daughter. Mia had been born on the 31st of October and with her orangey hair, it was a very apt and cute nickname.

Mia seemed to like it too, she hummed something indecipherable and just cuddled closer to her other mother, not letting go of Rose’s shirt in the process, striving to be touching both of her mothers at the same time.

Luisa smiled as she softly stroked Mia’s hair, her hand occasionally brushing against Rose’s who was doing the same.

All three of them fell back asleep very quickly, still exhausted from the constantly interrupted sleep they had enjoyed.

* * *

Luisa woke when the bed started bouncing, it seemed Mia’s daily energy boost had come in and she was now happily jumping up and down on the bed. Shaking her mothers awake.

‘Breakfast! Breakfast! Breakfast!’ she chanted happily, both Rose and Luisa groaning in response.

‘Okay, let’s go get breakfast,’ Luisa said sleepily, rubbing her eyes as Rose picked her glasses off the nightstand.

‘Sh-chips,’ Rose whispered, catching herself just in time. ‘It seems we overslept,’ she said, looking at Luisa, who shot a quick look at her own alarm clock to note that it was indeed already 7:30.

They both had to be at work at 8 and they had to drop Mia off at kindergarten beforehand.

‘I’ll do breakfast, you shower first,’ Rose said, taking Mia’s hand and ushering her out of the room. ‘You have an 8 AM appointed, I can be a little late to work. Go,’ she said, smiling sadly, it seemed their shower together had just fallen through.

Luisa sighed, taking a second she didn’t have to quietly curse whoever was in charge of the universe and was making it impossible for her to get laid. What had she done to deserve this kind of punishment?

* * *

She walked down the stairs ten minutes later, pulling her wet hair into a ponytail, she didn’t have the time to style it so it would have to do. She accepted a piece of toast and a travel mug of coffee from Rose, pecking her quickly on the lips before kissing Mia on the head in passing.

‘I love you two! See you tonight,’ Luisa smiled, already halfway out of the door, she might just make it to work on time if the traffic wasn’t too bad.

‘Love you, mommy!’ she heard her daughter yell.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose said, just before she closed the door behind her.

In the car she decided they should probably start using their alarm clock again, Mia’s excitement over her birthday was throwing off her sleeping schedule and she’d rather not rush out like this again for the rest of the week. Because it would only get worse the closer they got to Halloween.

The whole month of October was in the spirit of Halloween, and as Mia’s birthday coincided with the holiday, Mia’s excitement for her birthday started around the same time. So now it was only four days away, she was ready to explode. Dressing up and birthday presents were a lethal combination for four-year-olds.

She smiled as she navigated the Miami morning traffic, it was great to have Rose back to celebrate Mia’s fifth birthday. Her father and brother usually came over to celebrate, but it just wasn’t the same.

Up until nine months ago, Mia’s birthday always had been a day of mixed feelings for her. On the one hand, she was happy for Mia of course, but she always thought of Rose, and how much she wished she could be there too to see their beautiful daughter smiling and laughing and jumping around.

* * *

_‘Rose, I’m home!’ Luisa called as she walked through the door, she had started doing it as a joke when they moved in together, but she found she actually quite liked it when Rose came down the stairs at the sound of her voice to give her a kiss._

_Rose’s office was closer to their house than the clinic and she worked till five instead of six, so she was usually home before Luisa. And as such she had taking to working on the baby’s room for an hour before Luisa arrived._

_Luisa could hear stumbling upstairs as she walked into the kitchen, she was nearly two months pregnant now and always hungry, so her first stop was the fridge._

_She was tempted to just have her dessert before dinner but she knew, as a professional, that she should really eat something healthy, so instead of ice cream she poured herself a bowl of yogurt. Which was not nearly as satisfying a snack._

_As she turned around to sit at the counter, she spotted a neatly wrapped box on the counter. She frowned, it wasn’t anyone’s birthday and as far as she knew there wasn’t any anniversary she’d forgotten._

_‘Rose?’ she called again, turning towards the door as she heard Rose come down the stairs._

_Rose’s arrival momentarily distracted her from the present on the counter. Rose always dressed to perfection, she claimed it had something to do with being a lawyer, but Luisa knew she just liked looking better than anyone else in sharp skirts and ironed blouses. So there was something special about seeing Rose in paint-splattered jeans, her hair tied back in a messy bun and wearing an old flannel Luisa had stolen from Rafael when her grew out of his grunge phase. She was wiping her hands on an old rag and Luisa noticed some green mixed in with her red freckles._

_‘Hey, how was your day?’ Rose said happily as she leaned in to kiss Luisa, careful not to touch her so she didn’t get any paint on her clothes._

_‘It was good, not too busy. I got to sit around a lot,’ Luisa smiled, wiping at Rose’s cheek, turning the green splotches into green stripes._

_‘And how is the little one?’ Rose smiled, as she lowered down to her knees to place a gently kiss on Luisa’s shirt covered stomach, smiling up at her from that position, her eyebrows raised questioningly._

_‘She only made me throw up once today,’ Luisa smiled, her morning sickness had slowly been getting better, to everyone’s happiness._

_‘She, huh?’ Rose smiled, taking Luisa’s hand and allowing her to pull her back to her feet._

_‘I’ve been mixing it up. Pronoun wise. It doesn’t really matter but I hate referring to the baby as in ‘it’, it seems too impersonal.’_

_‘I get that’ Rose said, stealing the spoon out of Luisa’s hand and taking a bite of her yogurt._

_‘Hey!’ Luisa yelled. ‘I am the pregnant one, I get to snack before dinner,’ she laughed, standing on her toes as Rose held the spoon just out of her reach. ‘Rose, don’t be a child,' she admonished. ‘Give that back.’_

_‘You are ruining your appetite,’ Rose smirked, putting more distance between them as she backed out of the kitchen._

_‘I am eating for two now, I can have a bowl of yogurt before dinner,’ Luisa said, catching Rose around the wrist and pulling her closer._

_‘Okay then,’ Rose said, handing her the spoon back, kissing her softly as she did so. ‘You’re the one that has to cook anyway,’ she laughed._

_‘You really need to learn. I can’t believe you survived all this time and look like you do on take-out alone,’ Luisa smiled._

_‘I know, I know. And I will. I just think I need to finish the nursery first.’_

_‘How is that going?’ Luisa said, finishing her bowl of yogurt and turning to put it down on the counter, noticing the wrapped gift again._

_‘Want to come up and see?’ Rose smiled, following Luisa’s gaze, her smile getting even wider as she saw what Luisa was looking at. ‘Oh, right I got you something,’ she said, picking up the present._

_‘Did I forget an anniversary or something?’ Luisa asked, unsure what she had done to deserve a random gift. Rose usually brought her flowers once a week, or now she was pregnant a lot of chocolate and ice cream. But a gift that needed wrapping was something new._

_‘No you didn’t. And it is really a gift for the both of us,’ Rose said, her hand resting on the small of Luisa’s back, rubbing soothing circles._

_‘So can I open it?’ Luisa asked._

_‘Yes, but let’s see the nursery first, it is almost finished,’ Rose smiled, grabbing the gift up the counter and leading Luisa upstairs to the room across the hall from theirs._

_‘Were you home early today?’ Luisa asked as she looked around the room in amazement, yesterday only one wall had been painted the mint green they decided on, now three of them were, and Rose was about halfway done with the fourth._

_‘Yeah, my client decided to take the deal so I got to go home early,’ Rose said. ‘So what do you think?’_

_‘I think it looks amazing, you really have gotten better at painting,’ Luisa grinned, her fingers lightly tracing the raised scar on the back of Rose’s hand, the one she had gotten when they painted the kitchen._

_‘You are never going to let that go, are you?’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa’s temple as she hugged her closer to her side._

_‘No, I don’t think so,’ Luisa smiled. ‘So can I open the present now?’_

_‘Yes,’ Rose sighed, feigning annoyance at Luisa’s impatience but watching with barely contained nerves as Luisa unwrapped the package._

_Luisa stared at the gift in surprised silence for a couple of seconds, she didn’t exactly know what she’d been expecting but it wasn’t what she found in the box._

_She gently lifted the stuffed bunny from the box, tears running down her face._

_Rose rushed over in alarm as she noticed Luisa’s heaving shoulders._

_‘Lu, hey, is everything okay?’_

_‘Yeah, I’m – I’m fine,’ Luisa sniffed, smiling through her tears. ‘It’s just, real, I guess. We’re having a baby,’ she said as she hugged the toy closer to her chest._

_‘We’ve known that for a while now, or were you just starting your day off by throwing up for fun?’ Rose smiled, wiping at Luisa’s tears._

_‘No, that I have been very aware of,’ Luisa smiled through her tears. ‘It is just that, it is going to be a person. A real human being. And we have to raise them. And I don’t know, you buying a toy for them just made me realize that,’ she smiled, wrapping her arms around Rose’s shoulders._

_‘I very much want to raise this baby with you,' Rose said, a couple of tears making their way down her cheek as well._

_Luisa laughed as she wiped them away. ‘Now you’re crying too, and you don’t even have the excuse of pregnancy hormones.’_

_‘No, I don’t,’ Rose said, putting on a brave smile. ‘We’re going to be mothers.’_

_‘I know. I can’t wait,’ Luisa smiled, putting a hand on her still flat stomach, she couldn’t wait to start showing. It would make their baby even more real._

* * *

Luisa had been editing patient files on her computer when a knock on her door brought her out of it. ‘Come in,’ she yelled, rubbing her eyes. Paperwork was boring, even if it was no longer actually on paper, and with her continuously interrupted sleep, she was already tired before her lunch-break even started.

‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ Luisa smiled as Rose stepped into her office.

‘I am here to take you out to lunch,’ Rose grinned, her blue eyes sparkling.

‘Are you now?’ Luisa said, she knew the look Rose was giving her and it she was all for it.

‘Yes, I am,’ Rose said. ‘So, are you coming?’

‘Not yet,’ Luisa muttered to herself as she gathered her stuff.

‘When’s my next appointment, Kara?’ Luisa asked as she stopped in front of her assistant’s desk, Rose’s hand distractingly low on her back.

‘Uhm, two,’ Kara said, pushing her glasses further up her nose as she looked up from her computer screen.

‘Great, I’m taking a long lunch, see you in two hours,’ Luisa waved as she and Rose walked through the doors hand in hand.

‘Do you think she knows what we’re going to do?’ Rose asked, still smirking as she opened to car door for Luisa.

‘Kara? No, she’s too innocent. To her lunch is lunch,’ Luisa said.

‘That was what _I_ meant,’ Rose grinned.

‘Sure, all the grinning and sparkling eyes were for _lunch_.’

‘Okay, you got me,’ Rose laughed. ‘I have _never_ been so frustrated in my life. And I couldn’t stop thinking about this morning. Mia is still in school, so we might finally get to _finish_ what we started,’ she said, her voice dangerously close to a purr.

‘You too, huh?’ Luisa said, intertwining her hand with Rose’s on top of the center console.

‘You have no idea,’ Rose said, squeezing Luisa’s hand as she pulled out of the clinics parking lot.

* * *

As soon as the front door fell closed behind them, Luisa nearly attacked Rose with a ferocious kiss.

Rose responded enthusiastically and immediately started unbuttoning Luisa’s blouse as they stumbled up the stairs and towards their bedroom, leaving a trail of clothes behind.

‘Nu-uh, you do not get to be on top again,’ Luisa panted as Rose turned them around so Luisa’s knees hit the back of the bed instead of her own.

‘Why not?’ Rose said, her eyes narrowed in confusion.

‘You were a useless top this morning. I was doing all the work and as such, I get to be on top.’

‘I was tired!’ Rose protested but Luisa didn’t want to hear it, spinning them around quickly and pushing Rose down on the bed, immediately moving to straddle her.

‘I don’t care. I do all the work, I get to be on top,’ Luisa smirked, unhooking her own bra that had somehow stayed on during their whole frantic clothes removal through the house.

‘At least I don’t have to be silent now,’ Rose sighed happily as Luisa kissed a trail down and her neck between her breasts.

‘Maybe you should practice just in case, we can’t keep taking long lunches together to come home and have sex.’

‘I know, but isn’t it great?’ Rose smiled, arching her back as Luisa sucked lightly on a soft spot in her neck.

‘It really is,’ Luisa sighed, pressing her body fully against Rose’s.

Now they finally had the time to do things right, they made out for a while, their hands roaming each other’s bodies, mapping every inch of skin that had been untouched for too long.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ Luisa husked as she broke their kiss, looking into Rose’s darkened eyes.

‘So are you,’ Rose smiled, her hand coming up to cup Luisa’s cheek. “You are more beautiful than I remember, and I have a good memory,’ she said softly, one hand trailing down to Luisa’s stomach, lightly tracing the lightning-like stretchmarks she found there.

Rose knew Luisa was a little insecure about them, even when Rose told her she loved them, how they reminded her that Luisa was the reason they had Mia, that the amazing little girl they had was who she was today because of her.

Luisa smiled warmly as she saw the absolute adoration in Rose’s eyes, letting out a little gasp when Rose’s hand moved even lower and settled between her legs.

‘I love you,’ Rose hummed as she lazily swirled her finger around Luisa’s opening, gathering moisture before moving up to circle her clit gently, taking her time, building up to a steady rhythm.

With the incredible sexual frustration of the last few weeks and how close she had been to climax just this morning, it didn’t take long for Luisa to be reduced to pants and moans. Which she could let out freely as it was just the two of them and there was no need to be silent.

When Rose gently introduced her fingers into play, Luisa was lost. Her eyes fell closed and she bit down on Rose’s shoulder to keep from screaming herself hoarse.

Rose languid strokes slowly gained in speed and every thrust pushed Luisa higher until she was trembling, all her muscles locked up and her nerves firing at full volume.

‘Come for me,’ Rose whispered hotly into her ear, so Luisa did, letting everything go.

She collapsed heavily on top of Rose when her muscles released and her whole body turned to jelly.

Rose gently stroked her back until Luisa recovered enough of her strength to lift her head up.

‘Sorry for crushing you,’ she said softly, her voice a little rough.

‘It’s okay. I like you close like this,’ Rose smiled, kissing Luisa’s cheek.

‘I’m sorry for this too.’ Luisa said, carefully tracing the red indents her teeth had left on Rose’s shoulder.

‘My shirt will cover it,’ Rose said calmly. ‘And I am sure you’ll make it up to me,’ she grinned.

‘I can do that,’ Luisa smiled, pushing herself up on her elbows. ‘I can more than do that.

An hour and one very steamy shower later they were both frantically searching for their clothes because they were going to be late for the second time today.

‘That was fun,’ Rose smiled as she opened the car door for Luisa.

‘It really was. And I can’t believe I need to come up with an excuse for why I am late for the _second_ time today,’ Luisa said, combing her fingers through her hair.

‘Just say you spilled something on yourself at lunch, it will also explains why your hair is wet,’ Rose grinned.

‘No wonder you’re such a great lawyer, you make excellent alibis,’ Luisa smiled.

‘Just making sure you don’t get in trouble,’ Rose said.

‘I love you,’ Luisa smiled.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose smiled back, their eyes meeting in the rear-view mirror.

Against all odds, Luisa actually arrived on time for her two o’clock and she managed to focus a lot better that afternoon for some reason.

* * *

‘How come she’s still in bed now?’ Rose whispered as she and Luisa silently climbed up the stairs. It was October 31st, Halloween and Mia’s birthday. Mia had been waking them up before six all week, but today she’d stayed in her own room, giving her mothers enough time to make her birthday breakfast.

‘She likes to pretend she’s still asleep so I have to sing her awake, so _we_ have to sing her awake,’ she smiled.

‘I’d gladly sing her awake every morning if that meant I’d get to choose when she’d wake up,’ Rose said, balancing the tray in her hands as they approached Mia’s door.

‘You do have a lovely voice, but I am sure it only works because it is her birthday.’ Luisa grinned. ‘You ready?’

‘For my daughter’s fifth birthday? Always.’

Luisa opened the door, flicking on the lights as she set in the chorus of Happy Birthday.

She heard Rose laugh beside her as Mia immediately shot upright in bed, flashing them the widest smile.

‘Happy birthday, pumpkin,’ Rose smiled as she kissed Mia on both cheeks, putting the tray down on the side table, not wanting Mia to throw it over in her excitement.

‘Happy birthday, sweetheart,’ Luisa said, sitting down next to Mia on her bed as she too leant in to kiss her. ‘So do you want presents or breakfast first?’ she asked, knowing fully well which option Mia would go with.

‘Presents!’ Mia said, excitedly bouncing up and down in bed.

‘Okay,’ Luisa smiled, ruffling her daughter’s hair fondly, she was getting so big so fast. She would be starting school soon, and she was so happy Rose got to be here for this. ‘So which one do you want?’ she asked, offering her daughter the choice between three of the presents they had brought from downstairs, there were more for her to unwrap at her party later, but these three would do for now.

Mia, being a child, took the biggest one first, tearing the paper off enthusiastically. Her mothers smiling widely as they saw Mia’s eyes go wide and a smile break across her face.

‘It’s a giant Mr. Bunny!’ Mia yelled excitedly, hugging the large stuffed animal to her chest.

Mia refused to let go of her new toy, letting the two feet long stuffed rabbit rest in her lap as she unwrapped her other two gifts: a new backpack for school and a bunch of new drawing supplies.

Even after breakfast she wouldn’t let it go, dragging it with her everywhere, even when her friends showed up to her party later that afternoon.

‘I think we made a good choice on that gift,’ Rose said, cutting cake into manageable slices for a bunch of kindergartners already hopped up on sugar.

‘I think so, too,’ Luisa smiled, resting her head on Rose’s shoulder as they watched Mia use Mrs. Bunny, as she had so originally named the plushy, as a chair while she led a game with a bunch of her friends.

They both remembered the much smaller toy bunny that had entered their household about 5 years earlier.

Upon hearing the doorbell ring, Luisa leaned over and kissed Rose quickly. ‘I’ll get that. It’s probably Raf,’ she smiled.

‘Great,’ Rose said, she still didn’t like Luisa’s brother a whole lot.

‘Oh shush, he is bringing his wife. You’ll like her,’ Luisa said, nudging Rose in the side before moving to open the front door.

‘If I don’t, do I have your permission to eat all the leftover cake?’ Rose asked, her eyes shining with amusement.

‘Yes, but I am sure you’ll like her,’ Luisa yelled over her shoulder.

‘Raf! Petra! Hey,’ she greeted as her brother and his new wife walked through the door, Rafael carrying a large box.

Luisa eyed it suspiciously. ‘What did you get my daughter?’ she asked as Rafael put the box down on the hallway floor.

‘It’s from me and dad. It’s a bicycle. She’ll love it,’ Rafael smiled, calling his niece over to unwrap the gift.

‘I couldn’t stop him,’ Petra said, smiling apologetically.

‘It’s alright, at least he didn’t get her a car.’

‘He tried to,’ Petra smiled.

‘Of course he did,’ Rose said, appearing behind Luisa, glaring at Rafael before reaching out to shake Petra’s hand. ‘Hi, we haven’t officially met due to me being dead, I am Rose.’

‘I’m Petra,’ Petra smiled. ‘Nice to meet you. Congratulations to you both, for your daughter’s birthday.’

‘Thank you, do you want some cake?’ Rose asked, ushering Petra towards the kitchen while Rafael busied himself with helping his niece unwrap the very large present.

As it turned out, Luisa had been right, she did like Petra.

* * *

‘So how are you two doing?’ Petra asked, sitting at the dining table with Luisa. Rafael had suggested teaching Mia how to ride a bike and Rose had gone outside to keep an eye on them.

‘Good, it’s been so great having her back,’ Luisa smiled, clasping her hands around her cup of tea.

‘It must be weird, for both of you. She suddenly has a five-year-old daughter and you suddenly have your _wife_ back,’ Petra didn’t say it with any judgement, just curiosity.

‘It a bit weird, but mostly wonderful. Mia has two mothers who love her now, and I no longer have to do everything alone. We are still working through some things, but most of the time we’re just glad we’re here together.’

* * *

‘Do you want to get married again?’ Luisa asked suddenly as they were cleaning up the remnants of the party later that night.

Rose looked up in surprise. ‘What brought that on?’

‘Petra called you my wife and I think of you as my wife, but you’re not technically my wife.’

‘I describe us as wives, we were married once,’ Rose said, holding up her hand with her wedding ring.

‘I know, but we can make it official now. Gay marriage is legal in Florida. We can actually, legally get married. And with the whole you being dead business in between. I think it would be nice to do it again, with Mia there. But if you don’t want to, that’s okay,’ Luisa said, not meeting Rose’s gaze.

‘Is this a proposal?’ Rose grinned, covering Luisa’s hand with her own to make her look up.

‘Only if you’ll say yes,’ Luisa said, smiling slightly.

‘Of course I’ll marry you again. I would marry you a thousandth times over. I’d marry you in every state,’ Rose said, her eyes shining.

‘Great,’ Luisa said, throwing her arms around Rose’s neck. ‘Will you take my last name?’ she grinned.

‘I never got rid of your last name,’ Rose smiled, capturing Luisa’s lips in a sweet kiss.

‘We’ll need to change our vows though.’ Luisa said after they broke apart.

‘And why is that?’ Rose smiled.

‘Because death didn’t do us part,’ Luisa grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was the second to last chapter, the next and final one will be, you guessed it, their wedding!
> 
> Thank you for reading and if you liked it (or didn't like it) please consider leaving a comment!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, these two get a happy ending. After everything that happened in canon the last couple of weeks, I decided that this fandom needed some cheering up. So I beat my writer's block into a corner and wrote this very long, happy chapter.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this last instalment! And maybe grab tissues because I got sappy.

After months of Rose waking her with soft kisses, the buzz of her alarm was a harsh reality that she hadn’t missed at all. She groggily reached for her phone to turn it off, trying to remember why she had needed an alarm and why Rose hadn’t shut it off as she usually did.

She knew Rose had started setting an alarm after Mia had caused them to be late that one time. But in all those months, it had never once been the alarm that had woken Luisa. It woke Rose, who was much more of a morning person than she was and managed to shut it off after the first ring, who then proceeded to wrap her arms around Luisa’s still sleeping form and pepper kisses over her jaw and neck until she woke up. A vastly better manner of waking up than the shrill sound of her alarm.

Once she finally managed to find the right button and shut off the obnoxious blaring, she turned back around and rubbed her eyes. Finding the other side of the bed strangely empty and unslept in. For a second she was worried everything, Rose, the soft kisses, _everything_ , had just been a really great dream but then she spotted a flash of white hanging from a closet door that wasn’t her own and she couldn’t help but smile. She suddenly remembered exactly why Rose wasn’t in bed with her, and the momentary discomfort of waking up alone would all be worth it in a few hours when she would walk down the aisle for the second time in her life.

When she was younger, she never imagined she’d get married someday. When she was twenty-two and all her straight friends had started to plan their weddings, gay-marriage hadn’t been legal anywhere in the US. So even if she found the right woman, they wouldn’t be able to get married. But at twenty-two she had been in college, right in the middle of the downward spiral that would land in her rehab and solely dealing in one-night stands. So marriage hadn’t really been part of her plan for the future anyway.

Even when she got sober a few years later, she still didn’t think marriage would be for her. She didn’t do relationships well, she had nothing to compare it to. Her own mother had died when she was six and after that her father had had more wives than she could count on one hand. After seeing relationship after relationship fail, she thought it best to just enjoy herself and not be tied down. But of course, all of that changed when she met Rose.

It had started out as a one-night stand; they had exchanged first names and no phone numbers. And as soon as Luisa woke up that morning in the motel room alone, she knew it was a mistake. Yes, the sex had been incredible and she would gladly have started a casual relationship with the beautiful redhead, but there had been a deeper connection. Something she’d never felt for anyone before. And when they ran into each other in a different restaurant in a different city, she knew it was faith and she gladly ditched her date for the chance to go out with Rose instead.

And from that moment on, things had developed very quickly, neither of them knew much about relationships, but they both knew that what they had was right. So when Rose proposed a few months before their anniversary on the 4th of July, 'yes' was the only answer Luisa could give her.

At that time, she was certain she would never walk down the aisle again. Rose was it for her, she had known that from the first time they had eyes on each other. But now, after nearly seven years, she was going to get married a second time and she couldn’t be happier about it.

She unlocked her phone, wanting to send Rose a message that she’d missed her this morning, but it seemed Rose had beaten her to it. She opened the first of the messages from Rose and smiled.

“I know you are still asleep, I set your alarm for 8, but I just wanted to tell you I missed you. It seems I have grown rather attached to waking up next to you. I hope you slept well.”

It had been sent at seven, an hour before her alarm had gone off. And while Rose knew she wouldn’t be awake, it hadn’t stopped her from sending cute messages.

“I kept thinking this past year has been a dream. A really wonderful dream.”

“Can we move the wedding up a few hours? I don’t think I can make it without seeing you this long.”

“Mia caught me trying to sneak over to your room. She was not happy. Rafael must have gotten to her.”

“As she won’t let me go, I am debated sending Mia to your room to wake you up, you’d at least text me back, but that might make you hate me and I can’t risk that.”

“She won’t do it.”

The latest message had arrived at 8:01. “Good morning. I love you.”

Luisa replied with an “I love you.” of her own and while she waited for Rose’s reply, she couldn’t help but laugh at Mia’s antics. She could perfectly imagine the face their daughter would have made when she caught Rose on the way over to her room.

As tradition demanded, they had shared one last kiss before going to their separate rooms on opposing sides of the hotel. She was certain Rafael and their friends had planned it that way, as the last time they’d gotten married, the separate sleeping the night before hadn’t really worked out.

It had started alright, but after little more than an hour of texting, they had said screw it to tradition and Rose had managed to sneak over and they had spent the night together.

To make sure they didn’t invoke any more bad luck upon themselves, Rafael and the others had done everything in their power to keep them apart. Their rooms were literally as far apart as they could possibly be. And now they had recruited Mia to their cause, it was virtually impossible to do anything but text.

Mia was very excited about this wedding, almost as much as they themselves were. She had always loved the stories Luisa told her about their first wedding. So she was very eager to actually witness her mothers walk down the aisle for a second time and she wanted them to do everything right. So they were having a big wedding with lots of guests and cake. And while it didn’t matter to Mia, Luisa herself was very excited that this time around, the state of Florida would recognize her marriage to the love of her life. It was their home state and she was glad that Rose would now officially be her wife in every sense of the word.

“How did you sleep?” Rose asked.

“Okay, not as well as I do when you’re next to me.”

“I wish I could come over and kiss you right now. But Mia is standing guard outside my room so I am afraid to try anything. She knocked at my door at 5:30 this morning. I guess Rafael couldn’t deal with the delight that is an excited five-year-old. Is it bad that I feel kind of good that your brother had to deal with what must have certainly been a sleepless night? I blame him for our separation.”

Luisa laughed to herself, her brother did sort of deserve a sleepless night in return for the mediocre sleep she and Rose had had. And even if she saw the appeal of a temporary separation so the surprise of seeing each other would be all the bigger, she wished Rose had done what she’d done seven years ago and just come over, bad luck or not.

* * *

_Luisa put her phone away, Rose hadn’t responded to her last text message, meaning she’d probably fallen asleep. And she should probably follow her lead and get at least a solid seven hours, they were getting married tomorrow after all. She just knew she’d sleep better with Rose there._

_She hadn’t even turned off the lights when a faint knock sounded on her hotel room door. She could feel the corners of her mouth twist up into a smile, there was only one person who it could be at this time of night._

_‘Rose, what are you doing here?’ Luisa asked, trying to sound stern but she couldn’t keep the grin from showing up on her face._

_‘I hate to sound co-dependent. But I really don’t sleep well without you and it seems stupid to sleep without you the night before our wedding. So are you going to let me in?’ Rose asked, smiling cockily, knowing fully well that Luisa was going to let her._

_‘Quick, before someone catches us seeing each other before our wedding,' Luisa laughed softly, pulling Rose into the room and closing the door. The maneuver pushed them very close together and Luisa wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste. She settled her hands on Rose’s hips and pushed herself up on her toes to catch Rose’s lips in a soft kiss._

_Rose eagerly responded, opening her mouth to allow Luisa’s tongue entrance and to deepen the kiss. Neither of them wanted the kiss to end, but eventually the need for air forced them apart._

_‘Let’s go to bed,’ Rose said, already tugging on the hem of Luisa’s sleep shirt, actually one of her own. ‘It’s a big day tomorrow.’_

_‘It really is,’ Luisa smiled, letting Rose lead her to the bed, getting rid of her shirt on the way there._

_After a lengthy celebration of their upcoming nuptials, Luisa fell soundly in asleep in Rose’s arms._

* * *

_‘_ _Mmh, good morning,’ Luisa whispered hoarsely as the soft kisses Rose was pressing onto her cheek pulled her from sleep._

_‘Good morning,’ Rose smiled, tilting Luisa’s head towards her so she could capture her lips in a real kiss. ‘How did you sleep?’ Rose asked as she pulled away, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief over sneaking into Luisa’s room late last night._

_‘I dreamt that we were married,’ Luisa said, stretching languidly, smiling warmly at Rose who was watching her with interest._

_‘Well, I have some good news for you. We will be in a couple of hours,’ she smiled, leaning in to kiss Luisa again._

_‘Dreams really do come true,’ Luisa smiled. Knowing it was totally cliché but that was what it felt like. Here she was, in bed with the love of her life, just hours away from getting married; it was pretty much perfect. So perfect perhaps that she thought she still might be dreaming._

_‘Could you pinch me?’ Luisa asked, earning her a confused frown from Rose._

_‘Why?’ the redhead asked, now slightly concerned._

_‘Because I don’t think this can be real. I can’t believe it. My whole life, I have fucked up everything that meant anything to me, either by just being myself, or by drinking. And out of all of those things, you are the best one. And I can’t believe you are still here and that you actually agreed to marry me,' Luisa said, staring at the ceiling._

_‘Well, you technically agreed to marry me,’ Rose said softly, tucking a piece of hair behind Luisa’s ear as she propped herself up on her elbows. ‘And you could never lose me. Never,’ Rose said firmly. ‘There is nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for you.’_

_‘Save that for your vows, please,’ Luisa said, swallowing hard as she tried to get rid of the lump in her throat. Rose had said it so tenderly and yet so firmly, like she needed Luisa to believe her. And she did._

_‘Can I say I love you?’ Rose asked, smiling softly, her blue eyes shining wetly. It seemed Luisa wasn’t the only one affected by the sincerity of their earlier words._

_‘Always,’ Luisa smiled, wrapping her arms tightly around Rose. ‘And I love you too.’_

_Just as Rose was about to close the distance between them, there was a knock on the door._

_‘Luisa! Get up! I brought breakfast!’ a decidedly unwelcome voice said._

_‘Busted,’ Rose smiled down at Luisa, pecking her quickly on the cheek before getting out of bed, putting her clothes back on._

_Luisa groaned, she really wasn’t looking forward to explaining why Rose was here to her maid-of-honor. Alice was lovely but had somehow turned into bridezilla for this wedding. Which was ridiculous as she wasn’t the one getting married. But as Alice had put it, “you two aren’t stressing enough about this, so I’ll do it for you.”_

_Luisa looked up when a shirt hit her in the face._

_‘Get dressed,’ Rose grinned. ‘I’ll deal with Alice.’_

_‘Can’t we just hide in the bathroom and wait for her to go away?’ Luisa whispered, slipping the shirt over her head._

_‘That won’t work, you know how she is. And besides, I am not going to hide in the bathroom like a teenager for spending the night with my future wife,’ Rose said, waiting for Luisa to finish dressing before opening the door._

_‘Good morning, Alice,’ Rose said calmly._

_‘Rose?’ Alice said after a second of stunned silence. ‘You are not supposed to be here.’_

_‘I missed her,’ Rose shrugged._

_‘How adorable and sickeningly sweet that may be. You have to get out. Now. You are jinxing everything.’_

_‘It is not like I have seen her in her wedding dress or anything. It just seemed ridiculous to spend the night in a different room,’ Rose smiled._

_Luisa walked up behind her, resting her hand on the small of Rose’s back as she smiled at Alice, picking a grape of the tray she was still holding. ‘Morning, Alice,’ Luisa grinned._

_‘You two are impossible,’ Alice sighed, thrusting the breakfast tray into Luisa’s arms as she stepped in between the two women. Physically separating them._

_‘Out. Now,’ Alice said, pushing a laughing Rose out of the door._

_‘What about breakfast?’ Rose said._

_‘El has your breakfast, and is probably wondering where you are right now.’_

_‘Can I at least give her a kiss?’ Luisa asked, smiling innocently at Alice, who rolled her eyes in response._

_‘Fine. But then I am kicking her out,’ Alice said, crossing her arms. ‘I won’t let you two sabotage this marriage before it has even started.’_

_Rose laughed, side-stepping Alice and gathering Luisa in her arms._

_The kiss was shorter and chaster than she would have liked, but Alice was watching and Luisa imagined her impatiently tapping her foot on the ground._

_‘That was the last kiss you’ll ever get from me as your fiancée.’ Rose smiled as she pulled away, her hands lingering at the back of Luisa’s neck. ‘We’ll be married the next time.’_

_‘I don’t think I can wait that long,’ Luisa smiled softly, feeling her cheeks heat up under the adoring look Rose was giving her._

_‘Me neither,’ Rose said. ‘I’ll see you in a few hours. I’ll be the one wearing white.’ she smiled, taking a step back._

_‘What a coincidence. I’ll be in white, too,’ Luisa grinned._

_‘Okay, you two,’ Alice said. ‘You are adorable, I get it. Now go so you can go on to call each other “wife” in every other sentence like the obnoxious couple you are.’_

_‘I am actually looking forward to that,’ Rose smiled, giving Luisa one last wave before disappearing through the door that Alice immediately slammed shut._

_‘Now let’s get you showered and dressed so you can go out and be utterly disgusting with Rose again,’ Alice said, rubbing her hands together._

_‘Aye aye, captain.’ Luisa said, doing a mock salute before marching into the bathroom._

_Three hours later Luisa was standing in front of a mirror, nervously fidgeting with the satin fabric of her dress. She took a couple of steadying breaths, trying to suppress her nerves. She had no idea why she even had them. She was certain Rose was going to be waiting for her at the end of the aisle and she wasn’t afraid of the commitment. Quite the contrary, she loved Rose, more than anything and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with the beautiful and whip-smart redhead. They were planning on having some forty-odd children together. So why did she feel so nervous when she looked at her reflection in the white dress?_

* * *

_A knock on the door sounded and for a moment Luisa thought it might be that Rose had escaped the obsessive clutches of Alice and Elle and come over to steal a kiss. She could certainly use one right about now._

_It felt weird that she was not able to see or talk to Rose, Alice had confiscated her phone about thirty minutes into doing her hair. They could go hours without talking to each other of course, but now, the whole day was focused on them being together, and it felt weirdly contradictory that they weren’t actually allowed to be together right now._

_But it wasn’t Rose, it was her father poking his head around the corner._

_‘You look beautiful, dear,’ he said, as their eyes met in the mirror. ‘Your mother would think so, too. She would have loved to be here,’ Emilio said, smiling wistfully at her_

_‘Thanks, dad,’ Luisa smiled, turning around to give her father a hug, careful not to crinkle her dress. ‘I wish she could have been here.’_

_Her father nodded. ‘So are you ready?’ he asked, taking her hand in his._

_‘Yeah,’ Luisa said, taking a steadying breath, focusing on the absolute vision Rose would be in a white dress instead of the nerves making her stomach do flips._

_‘Dad?’ she asked before walking out of the door. ‘Did you feel nervous before you married mom?’_

_‘Yes. I was worried she’d come to her senses and marry someone else instead,’ he laughed. ‘But in all seriousness, I guess it was just the change. The fact that I would spent the rest of my life with the woman I loved. That somehow I had been fortunate enough to meet her, that we were going to be together forever. It made me happy. Incredibly happy and I couldn’t wait for it to start. So I was nervous, not because I was worried, but because I couldn’t wait any longer. I wanted the rest of my life to start at right that moment, with your mother beside me.’_

_Luisa smiled, her father had just perfectly explained what she was feeling. She wasn’t nervous, she was excited!_

_‘Thank you,’ Luisa smiled, giving her father another hug._

_‘Wow! You look beautiful, Lu,’ Rafael said as he stepped through the door. ‘She’s waiting for you,’ he smiled, his eyes sparkling. ‘And she looks amazing,’ Rafael teased, earning him a glare from his sister._

_‘Ready?’ her father asked, offering her his arm._

_‘Ready,’ Luisa said firmly, hooking her arm through her father’s, feeling her nerves melt away with every step she got closer to Rose._

* * *

_The nervous feeling in her stomach briefly returned when they halted in front of the closed double doors, waiting for the music to start playing. She knew Rose would be waiting for her on the other side but her heart didn’t seem to be listening to her head._

_When they started planning their wedding, Rose very quickly decided that Luisa should be the one to walk down the aisle. Luisa had tried to offer up the alternate solution of both of them walking down the aisle, but that wouldn’t change the fact that Rose had no one to walk her down the aisle. And she could understand why Rose wouldn’t want to walk alone._

_So that’s why Luisa was standing arm-in-arm with her father, waiting for the first glimpse of Rose._

_She squeezed her father’s arm as the doors opened in front of them, her eyes automatically drifting to the end of the aisle._

_Rose was in the middle of turning around when their eyes met, and then she just stopped. Luisa was certain she would have halted too if her father wasn’t gently guiding her down the suddenly much longer looking aisle._

_Rose was absolutely stunning. Unlike the ball gown she herself was wearing, Rose’s dress was much more form fitting and brought out her figure beautifully. She had pinned her hair up except for the curls framing her face. But by far the best thing was the wide smile she was wearing. Luisa knew it was only for her._

_Luisa could feel a tear roll down her cheek as she finally halted in front of Rose. She couldn’t believe she could be this happy, this lucky, to be standing here with Rose. The most amazing woman on earth._

_‘You look incredible,' Rose whispered softly, wiping the tear from Luisa’s cheek with her thumb before taking Luisa’s hand in her own and turning towards the officiant._

_After the opening address both of them were already on the verge of tears. The only thing keeping her sort of together was the comforting circles Rose was drawing on the back of her hand._

_‘Do you, Rose Diana Evans, take this woman, Luisa Allegria Alver, to be your lawfully wedded wife?’_

_‘I do,’ Rose said, her whole face lighting up with a beaming smile._

_‘And do you, Luisa Allegria Alver, take this woman, Rose Diana Evans, to be your lawfully wedded wife?’_

_Luisa nodded as she tried to speak around the lump in her throat. ‘Yes, I do.’ she said, squeezing Rose’s hand softly._

_‘You both have prepared your own vows?’ the officiant asked, both of them nodding simultaneously._

_‘I’ll start,’ Rose said, looking into Luisa’s eyes as she cleared her throat._

_‘Luisa, when I met you eight months ago, I thought you were the most incredible person I ever met. You are smart, kind, funny and incredibly beautiful. And when you agreed to go out with me I felt like the luckiest person on earth. And I have felt like that every day since. I never believed in faith, but meeting you must have been destiny. I am not exaggerating when I say that you are the best thing that ever happened to me. The truest thing. And I promise, to be there for you. I promise to love you, no matter what happens. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, till death do us part.’_

_Luisa tried very hard to keep the tears at bay, but she couldn’t. The words Rose had just spoken were so beautiful and everything about Rose’s posture screamed that she meant them. And she couldn’t believe how lucky she was either._

_She took a couple of steadying breaths, wiping at her cheeks, before speaking. She met Rose’s eyes and noticed that the blue was a little more watery than usual._

_‘Rose, I love you so much. And I have pretty much done that since the day we met. And I thought it might fade over time. But it didn’t, it only got stronger. Each little thing I learned about you just made me love you more. And I want to continue learning things about you, I want to continue loving you. For as long as possible. So it isn’t very hard to promise that I’ll always love you, because I know I will. I don’t know what the future has in store for us but I know we can face everything together. And I hope we get to do that for a very long time. I love you.’ Her voice broke as she spoke the last words, more tears falling from her eyes._

_Rose smiled at her, tears running down her own cheeks as well. They both laughed through their tears at how emotional they were being._

_The officiant seemed to understand that they were trying very hard to get it together and waited a moment before continuing with the exchange of rings._

_When Rose nodded that they were ready, he produced the two platinum bands they had picked out together. He handed one to Rose and one to Luisa._

_‘Repeat after me please,’ he said, turning to Rose first. ‘With this ring I thee wed.’_

_‘With this ring I thee wed,’ Rose repeated, turning Luisa’s hand over in her own and carefully sliding the ring onto her finger._

_Luisa did the same and they both turned towards the officiant, ready for the best part of the ceremony._

_‘Then, by the power vested in me by the state of Connecticut, I pronounce you wife and wife. You may kiss the bride.’_

_Rose smiled at her and gently cupped her cheek in her hands, bringing their faces closer together._

_‘I love you,’ Rose whispered just before she closed the distance between them._

_As they kissed, Luisa slowly forgot they were being watched by twenty-something people. The only things that mattered were Rose’s lips on hers._

_Luisa had lost count of all the kisses they had shared over the course of their relationship. At a certain point they had all merged together in her head. But this one, the kiss that sealed their marriage, she was certain she would remember that one forever._

* * *

And now, seven years later, she still remembered that kiss, and she was eager to do it all over again. Especially since it had been twelve hours since she’d last kissed Rose.

She was just about to remind Rose of that fact when there was a knock on her door. Maybe Rose had managed to ditch her protection detail after all and come over to steal a kiss, eager for a repeat of their first wedding.

‘Mommy!’ her daughter’s impatient whine sounded through the door. ‘Get up!’

Luisa laughed and unlocked the door. She couldn’t really be disappointed that it wasn’t Rose, she’d missed her daughter just as much.

‘Good morning, Mia,’ she smiled, bending down to give her daughter a kiss. She was already dressed in her bridesmaid’s dress, her wild hair tamed into two braids.

She felt bad for whoever had attempted to do Mia’s hair. The five-year-old did not like it when someone tried to do her hair, screaming at the sight of a comb. 

‘You look beautiful, sweetheart,’ Luisa said, giving Mia a careful hug, making sure not the crinkle the light blue dress she was wearing.

‘Thank you,’ Mia said, blushing slightly. She had picked the dress out herself and compliments on it meant a lot to her.

‘So how’s mama doing?’ Luisa said, taking Mia’s hand and guiding her fully into the room.

‘She’s on her phone a lot. I think she misses you,’ Mia said, carefully touching the soft fabric of Luisa’s wedding dress that was still on its hanger.

Mia had been absolutely fascinated by their wedding dresses and Luisa thought it was adorable. Mia had been very involved in the rest of the planning for their wedding as well.

Luisa loved that Mia got to be part of this wedding, she wanted her to know that they were really a family, all three of them. Not that Mia needed a reminder of that, but Luisa still liked to think of it as more than just a party.

‘I miss her, too,’ Luisa said. ‘Have you checked the ballroom yet? To make sure everything is ready?’

‘Yes, uncle Raf took me there before he let me go to mama’s room.’

‘And does it look nice?’

Mia nodded. ‘It looks very pretty. So when are you going to get dressed and look pretty too?’ she asked, bouncing up and down on the bed.

‘Soon, I need a shower first. And Alice is coming over to make my hair and make-up look pretty,’ Luisa smiled, getting more excited by the minute now Mia was here. Her energy and smiles were infectious.

‘Alice did my hair too,’ Mia said proudly.

Luisa couldn’t help but laugh. It was barely nine and the wedding wasn’t until one, but it seemed Mia had managed to wake everyone already.

‘Oh, I forgot. I made breakfast! Mia said, jumping off the bed and reappearing seconds later with a room service cart.

‘You made breakfast?’ Luisa asked, lifting one eyebrow.

‘I pushed the cart!’ Mia said proudly.

‘Ah, that makes more sense,’ Luisa said, grateful she was not being exposed to more of Mia’s cooking on this important day. ‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ Luisa said, normally she would ruffle Mia’s hair, but she doubted her daughter would appreciate that now her hair was so carefully styled.

‘Okay! I’ll go see mama now! She’s probably out of the shower!’ Mia said happily, storming through the door, leaving Luisa alone with her breakfast.

She smiled and picked up her phone, noticing that she had a missed message from Rose.

“Excited hurricane Mia alert. She’s coming your way. PS. check underneath your plate.”

Luisa frowned as she lifted up her plate, smiling as she noticed the tiny folded up square of hotel stationary.

She teared up a little as she unfolded it, Rose had drawn her a picture. It was nothing more than a quick sketch, it probably hadn’t taken her more than a couple of minutes, but the both of them were clearly recognizable and they were kissing. The caption read: _Not as good as the real thing, but maybe it helps. I love you._

Luisa couldn’t stop smiling as she traced the pencil lines of Rose her sketch, it really was the little things, the small gestures, which reminded her why she had forgiven Rose, why they were here, about to get married again.

She took a piece of toast from the cart and bit off a corner, she was about to text Rose that hurricane Mia was coming her way again, but she was interrupted by another knock on her door.

‘Alice,’ Luisa greeted, swallowing the mouthful of dry toast.

‘Luisa,’ Alice said, her eyes searching the room for a sign of Rose. ‘It seems you two managed to pull it off this time,’ she teased.

‘Yeah, with all of you so strongly enforcing the rule, we didn’t stand a chance,’ Luisa grinned.

‘I’m still having a bit of déjà vu,’ Alice smiled. ‘But I so happy for you, Luisa,’ Alice said, wrapping her in a tight hug.

Luisa smiled, Alice had been there for her 24/7 those first few months without Rose. She had been there when Mia was born. She had helped her tremendously to deal with all her feelings. And while she had first been angry at Rose for leaving her best friend alone, she eventually came around when she saw how happy being around Rose made Luisa, so once again Alice was her maid of honor, and Luisa wouldn’t have it any other way.

‘I never imagined I’d be getting ready to get married again,’ Luisa sighed as she pulled away from the hug.

‘I don’t think anyone could have imagined this scenario,’ Alice smiled. ‘Your lives are ridiculous. But come on, finish your breakfast and go take a shower. We have a lot to do.’

‘You didn’t say that seven years ago,’ Luisa laughed.

‘Well, you’re seven years older now,’ Alice teased. ‘More to cover up.’

‘Why are you my friend?’ Luisa asked jokingly.

Alice didn’t answer and just shoved a plate in her hands, smiling slightly. Luisa wouldn’t trade her in for anyone else.

* * *

Luisa had imagined that she wouldn’t feel as nervous the second time around. She knew what was going to happen, who was waiting for her on the other side of that door. But she still felt that same nervous excitement she had felt the first time.

She wanted to be married to Rose again just as much as she had wanted it the first time, and the fact that she was now on the other side of the aisle, already waiting by the altar, wasn’t helping.

They had switched places this time per Luisa’s suggestion. She had had her chance to walk down the aisle, and now Rose got to experience it as well.

Rose had initially protested, claiming she still had no one to walk down the aisle with. But Luisa had found a solution to that problem: Mia.

She and Rose could walk down the aisle together, it would be the perfect way to include Mia more in the wedding, and when they’d asked Mia if she’d like to do it, the five-year-old had almost exploded from excitement.

But that meant she already had to be in the hotel’s ballroom, waiting for Rose and their daughter to walk through the doors. She had no idea how Rose had pulled it off the first time. It was definitely worse to be on this side, all the faces staring up at her, smiling her way, or in her brother’s case, winking and giving her a thumbs up. And just the endless staring at the closed doors, hoping they would open and reveal Rose.

The minutes seemed to stretch into hours, and just when Luisa had come to the conclusion something must be wrong, the doors opened.

Somehow Rose looked even more beautiful than she’d done during their first wedding. She was wearing a strapless gown with embroidered flowers on the bodice. Her hair was swept over one shoulder an there was a white rose in her hair, matching the bouquet in her hand.

She was holding Mia’s hand in the other, and it seemed Mia’s excitement had made way for her shyness now everyone was looking at her.

Luisa could see her slow down and try to hide behind the skirt of her mother’s dress until both Rose and Mia were standing completely still in the middle of the aisle.

Rose smiled warmly at Luisa before kneeling down in front of Mia.

They were too far away for Luisa to hear what was being said, but it sort of reminded her of an event that had transpired almost a year earlier. She had kneeled down in front of Mia in much the same way that first time Rose had come over. How far they had come since then.

Luisa teared up a bit when Rose lifted Mia upon her hip and walked down the rest of the aisle with their daughter in her arms.

It was so adorable and maternal and just so amazing Luisa’s heart was about to beat out of her chest.

When Rose reached the altar, she put Mia down in between them like there was no other place she could be. And Luisa wholeheartedly agreed.

Luisa took Rose’s hand as she bent down to Mia’s level. The rest of the people in the room forgotten, only the three of them mattered right now.

‘Hey, sweetheart,’ she whispered, taking Mia’s hand as well. ‘Are you nervous?’

Mia nodded slowly, not meeting her mother’s eyes.

‘So am I,’ Luisa said, smiling warmly at the little girl, who looked back up at her in surprise.

‘Have you seen how beautiful your mother looks? It’s pretty intimidating’ She could hear Rose laugh softly next to her. ‘And we love that you are here with us. We wouldn’t have it any other way, but if you want to sit down with uncle Raf that’s okay too. We want you to be happy. So is that what you want?’ she asked Mia.

Mia thought it over for a minute before shaking her head. ‘No, I don’t want to. But can I just hold your hand?’ Mia asked softly.

‘Of course!’ Luisa beamed. ‘Let’s do this,’ she said as she straightened up, holding on to Mia’s hand so they formed a tiny circle in front of the officiant, their hands linked with each other.

‘You look beautiful, too,’ Rose smiled before nodding at the officiant that it was okay to continue.

While they listened to the opening address ,Luisa kept her eyes firmly trained on Rose, not believing that the incredible woman in front of her had agreed to marry her not once, but twice.

‘So do you, Luisa Allegria Alver, take this woman, Rose Diana Evans, as your lawfully wedded wife?’

Mia looked up at her with big, expectant eyes.

Luisa’s smile got impossibly wider as she answered. ‘I do.’

‘And do you, Rose Diana Evans, take this woman, Luisa Allegria Alver, as your lawfully wedded wife.’

‘Yes,’ Rose smiled, squeezing her hand. ‘Yes, I do.’

As she looked down at Mia and back up at Rose she decided that the vows she had written wouldn’t do.

So when the officiant gave her a nod that she could start, she took a deep breath and just spoke from the heart.

‘I had written my vows down a few weeks ago. But now I am standing here, again, I realized that there is something else I should say instead. Rose, I love you. I never really stopped loving you. And you’re right, our meeting was faith, but everything that happened after we’ve worked for. You and I and our beautiful daughter. Because that’s life, it’s hard and most of the times it doesn’t go as planned. But I realized a few hours ago, that life is made up of the little things, like drawings, and texts, and spontaneous kisses. And you can never run out of those little moments. So what I am saying is, we may have missed five years of those. But we can make up for them, I think we already have. I don’t want to spend another day without you. What I said seven years ago is still true, we’ll be able to survive everything together. We already did the hardest thing possible; we kept loving each other across time, and there is nothing that can stop me from loving you now.’ Luisa took a shaky breath, she had once again let her emotions get the better of her. But Rose wasn’t faring much better, her eyes were shiny with tears as well.

‘Luisa,’ Rose started, clearing her throat when her voice wasn’t much louder than a whisper. ‘I don’t think I can say anything more than that I love you. Because I do, so much. And I promise to love you forever. Because if even death can’t keep us apart, nothing will. Seven years ago, I said I was the luckiest person in the world. Today, I don’t think I am. You standing here before me makes me the luckiest person in the universe. Because never will there be another person as amazing as you. And I will gladly spent the rest of my life with you, drawing you, texting you, kissing you, raising our daughter together. I want to do everything with you. I love you and that will never change, no matter what.’

They were both really crying now, just staring at the other through their tears, repeating everything they had said in their head, falling impossibly further in love.

‘Don’t cry,’ Mia said softly, tugging on their arms. ‘I love you, too.’

Luisa laughed through her tears, Rose joining in.

‘And we love you, pumpkin,’ Rose said.

‘So much,’ Luisa added, turning back to the officiant. After everything that had just been said, she really needed to kiss Rose, and she didn’t think it would be appreciated if she did it before the pronouncement.

‘Now the rings,’ the officiant said, producing the two twisted bands.

Luisa smiled as she saw the two of them laying side by side on the cushion. Neither of them really wanted to wear completely new rings. Their old wedding rings meant too much to them. And adding another on top seemed a bit much, so after a whole night spent on the internet, Rose had found a solution.

The rings were their old rings in a new jacket. They had had them melted down, keeping one half of the metal from their original ring and twisting it around half of the metal of the other one. The result was two intertwining bands, made from each other’s rings, so they would always be linked. This way they would remember the past without losing focus on the future. Luisa loved them. It was absolutely perfect.

She admired the ring on her finger for a second before bringing her gaze back up to Rose’s eyes.

‘Then by the power vested in my by the state of Florida, I now pronounce you wife and wife, you may kiss the bride.’

Luisa brought one hand to the back of Rose’s neck, pulling her into a kiss, still holding on to Mia’s hand as she did so.

The kiss was just as wonderful and amazing as the kiss that sealed their first marriage, and Luisa didn’t want to pull away from Rose, not even when the need for air became too much to ignore. She wanted to live in this moment forever, because it was the happiest she’d ever felt.

They finally broke apart when Mia tugged on their hands again. ‘Can I have a kiss, too?’ she asked, smiling shyly up at her mothers.

Rose laughed. ‘Of course you can,’ she said, picking Mia up and putting her on her hip.

She looked at Luisa, who understand perfectly what Rose wanted.

She mentally counted to three and leaned in at the same time as Rose to kiss Mia on the cheek.

Mia giggled sweetly, blushing a little.

And it was that giggle that would live on in both her mothers’ minds forever. Because after all these years, they were all together, a perfect little family. And nothing that had happened before mattered anymore. Just this moment, all three of them here in front of the altar; the happiest moment of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank you all so much for reading this. It started as a one-shot but thanks to all your amazing responses it is now a fully finished story with a happy ending.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading it and I will be working towards more happy endings soon!
> 
> Thank you for all the comments and kudos, they kept me writing!

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you think? Comments and prompts are always welcome!  
> You can find me on tumblr as writersblockisabitch
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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